When I Took The Hunter Exam
by RikuXxMusicXxLove
Summary: A long time best friend of Kurapika sticks to him like glue. He's all she's got left and she never wants to lose him. This is following the 1999 anime. My first story :3 Rated M for cursing and more adult stuff later to come. KurapikaXOC.
1. Chapter 1

**Quick Author Note: First chapter might be a bit boring, but stick with the story and it will get better! I promise! :D! Now on with the story. xD**

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><p>There was once a time when I was happy. Nothing ever phased me. The reason why, was because I lived in a world of fantasy; instead of reality. Then the Phantom Troupe attacked. Nothing was very happy for me anymore.<p>

My name is Akira. I am, well was, part of a Clan called the Kushio Tribe. We have been allies with the Kurta Clan for the longest time. This is how I have my best friend, Kurapika.

He was very handsome. He had perfect blonde hair and lovely blue eyes. His skin was too perfect to be true, but it was. Beside his feminine features, he was basically a flawless guy.

I on the other hand, wasn't so perfect. I was pretty flawed in the looks department, but hey, we can't all be perfect can we? I was broad shouldered. So I had kind of a build, I slouched too, which isn't very good, but hell, I'm comfy. I didn't have a perfect flat stomach. Not like how "normal girls" would have. I have very bizarre eating habits. Because of this, and my slow as hell metabolism, I have a chubby stomach. I have rolls when I sit. I'm working on getting rid of it though. Just thanking every force on the earth for no love-handles or muffin-top. I am so glad I don't have that.

But you know, I do have good qualities. I have breasts between C and D. So it creates a curve along with my thighs.

I don't like all this fat I have. I really don't. As long as I can wear my skinny jeans though, there are no problems really except for my shit self esteem.

Now with the last details about myself, I have short black hair. I got it cut to look like Kurapika's. I also had green gray eyes. They hold a secret, stick around, you'll find out. But I also dress like a guy. Comfy, not fashionable. Big shirts over skin tight shirts any day.

SO. As I was saying,

Kurapika and I were on Whale Island right now. We were here for last minute shopping right before we had to take the boat to Dole Island. Taking the Hunter Exam was his idea, but I went along with it.

I usually go along with whatever Kurapika said. He was the only person I had left in the world. I can never lose him. No matter what. I won't little things come between us, especially not something as small as a disagreement. He means too much to me.

So anyway, I was really bored. Like, really bored. I just started looking around at people. They were staring at me. I really hated when people stared at me, I get really self conscious, but I got use to the stares a while ago. If I had to guess, they were staring at me, for what I was wearing. Basically, I got stereotyped as the "punk", the "Goth", the "emo". I don't care. I'd take those as compliments. I just don't like people using stereotypes. They annoyed the fuck out of me, but no one gives a shit, so its whatever.

I was wearing a black band tee, for my favorite band "Sick Puppies". A pair of blue skinny jeans with a few holes in them, and a pair of shoes I created myself. They looked like converse, but the bottoms were made so they can handle any surface. (Don't ask how I did it, I will never tell). I put spikes on the back of my sneakers as well. It looked cool to me. I also had on a long chain hanging on the left side of my pants. I had gloves where the palm was stripped and the dorsum was fishnet with chains. A studded bracelet on the left wrist and spiked bracelet on the right, plus a spiked choker necklace. A gray beanie on my head and thick rimmed prescription glasses.

_I know I look different. Does that really mean you all need to stare? _I thought while sighing. "Kurapika?" He turned to look at me. "Can we get something to eat? I'm hungry" I asked holding my stomach for emphasis. He nodded once and we walked off to a diner. There was a lot of people running opposite of us. Off in the distance, I heard a guy announcing about arm wrestling some hunter. "Hey Kurapika?"

"Hmm?"

"Can we go arm wrestling after we're done eating?" I asked. He shook his head no, and I sighed. "Okay…"

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><p>The waiter was bringing our drinks when he suddenly stopped and yelled "Look out kids, that spider's poisonous! You better hold completely still or else it's going to bite you!" The restaurant was near a frenzy, people screaming and moving around. We turned our heads and looked at it. Both our eyes turned scarlet red and we jabbed our forks into it and threw it to a wall where the fork stuck, but the spider crawled away.<p>

"Fucking spiders." I spit on the ground at the direction of the spider.

"Stop, Thief!" We heard someone yell. Turns out someone was running away from a stand and the owner was chasing after him.

Then a guy in a suit ran off with some fish in the confusion, calling back to a little kid in green saying "Good luck to you kid!" We stared off at the guy who was running away.

"Huh" I said while looking into my messenger bag. Kurapika stopped and looked at me, with a face asking 'what?'. "I need to go to a pharmacy real quick to buy something." He turned around and was about to walk with me, but I put my hand up to stop him. "Lady somethings. Stuff that we use once a week per month." He put his hands up defensively in a way to say 'say no more'. "I'll catch up with you at the ship, okay?" He nodded. So I ran to the nearest pharmacy and went to go buy that stuff~.

I caught up with Kurapika and we were sitting next to each other. I had my headphones in listening to some music from my iPod. The ship started moving. I looked up to see that same kid in green, running and then using his fishing rod to swing onto the ship. _Man that looks like fun. _I thought as I saw them slide down the sail and land. I took my head phones off to listen.

"Hey Mister, are you alright?" The kid asked.

"Don't call me mister, my names Leorio." The guy in the suit said, with some pain in his voice. With the way he landed, I don't blame him.

"Looks like the trip to Dole, won't be as boring as I thought it was going to be" I heard the captain say.

I agreed with him. _I have to make friends with that kid; he seems like a hell of a lot of fun. _I smiled to myself and continued listening to my music.


	2. Chapter 2

**Really Quick Author Note (PLEASE READ)**: The song used in this chapter is called "Deathbed" By There For Tomorrow :D So please, dont think I stole it, cause I didnt. And like I said before, first few chapters might be boring, but they will get better, I promise! :D!

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><p><em>Dear Mental Diary,<em>

_ Been out at sea for a few hours now. We left Whale Island in the afternoon yesterday; it's now sometime noon or probably a few hours after. I don't know, I was asleep up until an hour ago. I learned that the kids name is Gon. I'm sitting next to him right now while he's fishing. Now I'm wondering… does this count as talking to myself?_

Yep, that's basically it. I asked Gon if I could sit next to him and watch. He said "Yeah sure" with a smile. He seems like a sweet boy so far. Kurapika was sitting under the mast. He was looking at Gon for a second, but then closed his eyes. I always wonder what he's thinking. So anyway, the captain came out, then a fight broke loose, and then a guy got thrown overboard. Yawn. _He wasn't that cute anyway. _I thought.

"I've got one!" Gon yelled next to me.

"You finally caught something? Epic!" I said grabbing onto Gon to help him pull out the fish. Man did he have a smile on his face.

"Well look at that, you got yourself a big one and it's a flying bonito too! Those are very rare and aren't very easy to catch either."

"Yeah, I almost never see them at Whale Island"

I heard Leorio yawn. "There's no wind at all, not even a slight breeze. Can someone tell me how long it's going to take to get to Dole Island?" He asked.

Gon put the fish down and turned around. "There's a storm and it's headed our way"

I looked at him a little funny at first. Funny like 'really?' because it's really interesting on how he thinks this. Leorio said "Very funny. The ocean's totally calm."

"Yeah, but it's humid and you can taste salt in the air and the sea cranes are calling out warnings." He defended. I looked back at Kurapika and he looked at us. I shrugged a bit skeptical.

Leorio laughed "You can understand all their squawking?"

"Yep. Well most of it anyway."

Leorio laughed again. "This is some kind of joke right?"

So afterwards Gon predicted the storm was coming in two hours and that it's going to be a big one. So the captain ordered to bring up all the sails. The captain also said Gon was the second to do that. _I wonder who the first was… _I thought. Leorio got distracted looking at all the guys working together. I don't know how, but a bucket managed to fly over and hit Leorio in the face and brake. Some pieces flew over at Kurapika but he dodged them easily. _I always love how he does that_. _I don't know why, but it's always kind of a turn on…_

Leorio started shouting at the guy who let the bucket "slip". Had to admit though, seeing him get hit in the face like that, was pretty funny.

Two hours passed by longer than expected. Here's the thing that sucked though, I always hated thunder and lighting. Those things scared the shit out of me. So now that I see the storm coming, I'm trying my best not to freak out.

_**BOOM. **_Okay fuck. There goes one thunder clap. It sent a shiver down my spine. _Don't lose your cool, just stay calm, _I thought trying to keep myself relaxed. I looked up to see the mass started glowing. "That's pretty wicked." I said to myself. It looked really nice and it did distract me a bit from the storm.

"I bet that's Saint Elmo's Fire" The captain said calm.

"What's saint Elmo's fire?" Gon asked.

Kurapika just walked up next to me and said "It's a phenomena in which tall objects like that mast are illuminated by a build-up of static electricity. That probably means that there's a thunder head or electrified clouds are situated directly above us."

Gon looked at Kurapika and asked "Really?" like it was the most interesting thing.

"So you can actually talk after all. Thanks a lot for the encyclopedic explanation." Leorio said sarcastically. Kurapika glared at him a little but Leorio just made a ridiculous face at him.

_Ugh, will you stop making faces at him? _I thought annoyed. "You know your face might get stuck like that." I said loud enough, but he ignored me and did what he wanted. He even made the face at me too.

"You know there's an old legend. No sailor that has seen Saint Elmo's Fire has ever made it back to port alive." The captain said calm.

"Hah. Good thing I'm not a sailor." Leorio said like he was such a smart guy.

_Smartass._

"A storm is coming, and it's going to be bad." The captain said with a straight face. With a hint of worry.

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><p>We all got inside and the storm was coming at us, really hard.<p>

Kurapika went to go sleep. Leorio was sitting on the floor eating an apple, and Gon was riding on a barrel. _That looks like fun. _I thought as I was sitting in the corner hugging my knees. I was listening to the song that reminded me so much of _him._

"_I'd hate to break it to you now  
>But that reoccurring sound,<br>In your ear makes it perfect  
>Was it clear, my whole purpose?<br>I'm just fine with or without  
>Having this inner selfish doubt<em>

_I'll fall hard  
>You'll fall harder<br>I'm along  
>You're so startled<em>

_Break a sweat, desperate lover  
>Do you feel all alone?<em>

_I fell asleep on your deathbed  
>In a hole where your head rests<br>I'm facing truth so unfamiliar  
>I just close my eyes and<br>Fall asleep on your deathbed  
>Can we be resurrected?<br>I'm facing truth so unfamiliar  
>I'm your saint, will you be my savior?"<em>

I started thinking about the day the Phantom Troupe attacked my tribe. The same day I lost _him_. _I can't believe how long it's been since that day. Four years. Four long years. Every night for the longest time filled with tears. Only if they never attacked, you'd still be here with me. I miss you so much… _I thought while my head was looking down with eyes closed. Suddenly a quick flash back of his face came to me.

It quickly went away as I felt someone tap my shoulder. I looked up to see Gon. I pushed my headphones down around my neck. He was asking me if I was okay. I told him that I was fine, just a little spooked from the thunder and lightning. I told him that he should go look at some of the other passengers. He said okay and went to go help some other people.

The captain came into the room staring at all the men looking sick and destroyed, just from being tossed around a bit by the water. "How pathetic. These are the guys who think they're up to the challenge of the Hunter Exam. What a joke." He looked around to see Gon helping out some people. Leorio was looking into a mirror. Kurapika was still in the hammock. He saw that I was still fine in my corner.

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><p>"You want me to tell you what my name is?" Leorio said miffed.<p>

"Yeah I do." The captain said.

"My name's Gon!" Gon said cheerfully.

"I'm Kurapika" he said getting up from the hammock.

"Yo, Captain! My name is Akira" I said getting up with a smile.

"And my name's Leorio." He gave up with a sigh.

"So Gon, Kurapika, Akira, Leorio, I want you to tell me the reasons why you want to become a hunter" The Captain said.

"Hey, why don't you mind your own business? You're just here to steer the ship." Leorio said a little more irritated.

"Just answer the question"

"What if I don't!" He yelled in his face.

"Hey captain, I'll tell you my reason. My dad's was one, and I wanna see what it's like." Gon said simply.

"Woah there kid I was still talking to this old guy. He doesn't need to hear your life story anyway."

_More like yelling. _I thought. _And if he wants to tell him, then let him. Geez._

"What's the big deal? It's no secret." Gon asked like it was nothing. It really wasn't.

"Seriously. Telling people a reason why you wanna be a hunter shouldn't really bother you. Who cares what they think?" I said to him.

"Because I don't wanna tell him. I don't have to do what he says. You see I like to stand up for myself. That means never letting anyone ever boss me around."

"I agree with you, Reolio." Kurapika said, while he jumped off the hammock.

_Haha, Reolio. That's funny. _I thought to myself with a small smile.

"Hey you, who the hell do you think you are?" He said calm, but with annoyance. "Next time you better say my name the right way!" He said with a horrible face and anger in his voice.

"It would be easy enough to dodge the captain's question by making up a plausible lie." Kurapika said. Leorio just stood there. "However I consider lying to be a sin that is equal to greed and as dishonorable."

"The name's Leorio, you got that?"

"But I also feel that I can not disclose the truth to a stranger with whom I've just met. My reason for becoming a hunter is much too personal. This is why I choose not to answer the question at this time."

"I on the other don't really care much about the whole 'lying' and 'sin' crap. And I don't really care about telling anyone anything." I said standing next to Kurapika. "So if you want me to tell you, I will."

"You listening to me? The name's Leorio."

Gon started staring at Kurapika and Leorio.

"If you two don't want to answer the question, then you can get off my ship." The captain cut in. Leorio turned to look at him. "You still don't get it do you? The hunter exam started the minute you stepped onto this ship." He pulled out his Hunter license card.

"That's from the hunters association!" He called out excitedly.

"No shit Sherlock. Thanks a lot for pointing that out Captain obvious." I said boredly.

Leorio gave me a little agitated look. "There are as many people who want license cards as there are stars in the sky. You think there are enough examiners to judge them all? Huh, hardly. That's why there are people like me who not only "steer the ship" but also screen the applicants. The rest of them didn't make the cut. I'll be making my report on them to the committee. If any of them try to get to the exam site by a different route, then they'll just be turned away. What this all means is that whether or not you four can take the exam has been left up to me. So do you want to answer the question or not?"

"Gee, when you put it like that, then I guess I have no choice but to answer. The reason I want to become a hunter is because-" Leorio started.

"I'm the only survivor of the Kurta Clan." Kurapika cut in.

"Hey! I was just about to tell him my reason!"

"I want to be a blacklist hunter so I can capture fugitives with a bounty on their heads and bring them to justice."

"And why is that?" The captain asked.

"Four years ago, my brethren were all brutally massacred by a gang of thieves; The Phantom Troupe, were held responsible. And I am determined to have my revenge."

"And that's why you have to become a hunter." Kurapika nodded once. "The Phantom Troupe have a class A bounty on their heads. Even the most experienced hunters go after them. It could cost you your life."

"I do not fear death. But what I do fear most is that my rage will eventually fade away."

"Yep." I said "My reason is basically the same is his. My clan was massacred by The Phantom Troupe as well. I am as well the sole survivor of the Kushio Tribe…" I said as I put my hands in my pockets. "I'm not one for killing anything though… Considering I'm a pacifist and a vegetarian. But I am willing to fight for my love."

"Huh, get over yourselves. You can get your revenge without having to go through the trouble of the Hunter exam."

"Kurapika… he just said to get over myself. He doesn't even know-" I said.

"Don't be as stupid as you look." Kurapika said, while he was patting my shoulder trying to calm me down. "Everyone knows that as a hunter, you have access to places and information that few others do. You could take any action, Reolio."

"For the last time, it's Leorio!"

"Well then, lets here your reason, Leorio" The captain cut in, again.

"My reason? I'm not even going to try and guess what you want me to say, so I'll just get straight to the point." He paused. "Money! As a hunter I'll make loads of money. Then I'll be able to buy everything I ever wanted. A Huge mansion, a cool car, and top grade boo's! Ahahahaha…" He trailed of in his laugh.

"I wonder if you could buy yourself some class, Reolio" Kurapika and I said together as a joke.

Leorio stopped and got a"…That's the final strike." He said looking at Kurapika. "You Kurta Tribesmen are a bunch of dirty half -wit tribesmen who know nothing about manners."

"Hey!" I yelled. "What's your problem?"

"You take that back right now, Reolio."

"I've had enough of you" Leorio said. Then there was a strong silent pause. "Let's go"

"Sure, anytime."

"Guys come on, there's no need to fight" I said hesitantly and little worried. _Oh shit… he's gonna fight Kurapika… this isn't going to end well. _I thought. _Bitch is gonna die._

They walked out the room but the captain tried calling them back, but to no avail.

"Let them go." I looked at Gon curiously. "If you really want to know someone, you should try to understand what it is that makes them feel angry. That was one of the things Aunt Meeto taught me and I believe it's true. Whatever is making them so furious, is probably something important, and we shouldn't get in there way."

_Damn Gon, you're pretty deep for a kid. Looks like we can be real good friends. _I thought as I patted him on the head. "Well if you'll excuse me captain, I'm gonna go watch my best friend kick ass." I said as I ran through the door and out to the deck to watch the fight.

"Take back what you said, and I'll forgive you about it, Reolio!"

"No way, Krapika!"

"You did not just call him Krapika!" Then they started their fight. "Yeah Kurapika!" I yelled cheering him on. "You go, bro! Kick some ass!"

Then out of nowhere, some guy was climbing the mast. "Katso! Be careful up there!" The Captain called out to him. That guy was trying to fix the damage on the mast.

Then a big streak of lightning that nearly hit Katso, so he started falling over board. Without a second moment to lose, I immediately ran after him. So did the guys. Kurapika and Leorio just barely missed Katso. Although Gon did the unthinkable and actually jumped after him. He was falling over board, so Kurapika jumped after him. "Holy shit! Kurapika!" I jumped after him and then Leorio grabbed me around my ankles, then started pulling us all up. "Damn he's got some serious strength…" I whispered to myself.

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><p>"You know that was a pretty stupid thing you did, Gon" Leorio said.<p>

"Yes, very reckless" Kurapika agreed.

"Yeah I know" Gon agreed as well.

"This coming from the guys who jumped after." I joked. "Gon, I thought what you did was totally heroic and awesome!" I said while hugging Gon. "You definitely deserve an award." I smiled.

"Haha, Thanks Akira."

"Yeah, but anyway, just imagine what could've happened if we hadn't grabbed your legs." Leorio continued scolding.

"But… you did grab my legs" Gon said optimistically. "So… what happened to your fight?"

"Fight? Oh that's right, we were fighting, weren't we?" Leorio asked remembering.

"Allow me to apologize for being so rude to you before. I'm sorry, Leorio." Kurapika said, using his correct name.

"Hey don't worry about it, I guess I was just being a little too sensitive. I'm sorry to." Leorio accepted "And all that mean stuff I said about your people; I take it all back."

Kurapika smiled. "Yay!" I yelled happily. "We're all friends again!" I hugged them both really tight under each arm.

The captain came in and started laughing, he said that we had all passed. Then he promised us a safe trip the rest of the way to Dole Island.

_This might not be the easiest ride to becoming a hunter, but I guess this just marks the start of a good journey. I can't wait to see what lies ahead. _I thought. _Oh well, as long as I stick with Kurapika, I guess… that's all I really need. _I smiled and looked out to the sea. _I hope the world is ready for us._

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><p><strong>And last thing,<strong>

_Italics mean thoughts. :3_

**_Italics and bold mean sound effects._**

_And italics with underlines are usually song lyrics :3_

Any other things, will be found out later. xD

**THANKS FOR READING :D!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: OKAY SO. QUICK THING. I plan on making a chapter by each episode c: AND LIKE YEAH. AND I AM TRYING MY BEST TO MAKE IT A GOOD STORY. So a review about how I could make it better, funnier, or anything, would be greatly appreciated c:**

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><p>"Yes! We're finally off the ship! Wahoo!" I said happily jumping around and dancing like an idiot. I ran back to the Captain real quick and gave him thanks for the awesome trip. While at the same time Leorio and Kurapika were looking around.<p>

"Hahaha!" The captain laughed, because Gon and I were thanking him. "Akira, Gon, you're good kids. If you can appreciate a rough voyage like that, then you'll be alright. But remember you're still only at Dole Harbor. You still have a long way to go."

"You're right, thanks." We bowed slightly.

"Don't you ever stop giving lectures captain? I've heard more than enough stuck on that boat of yours." Leorio asked.

"Hmm. Then I'll leave you with one last piece of advice then. You can… call it a special favor." The captain said calmly.

"What are you trying to say?"

"You see that?" He pointed. "Head for that loan seeder at the top of that mountain over there: You'll find a shortcut to the exam site. And if I were you I'd get going. As you know the Hunter Exam has already started."

"Alright then, take care." Gon said.

"You too, best of luck."

"Thanks everyone! Good-bye!" Gon waved. Leorio also waved and Kurapika bowed.

"Oh and Katso!" I called out to him. He looked at me with a questioning face. "You're really fucking cute! Just letting you know!"The guys looked at me like I was crazy. Katso on the other hand just gave me a toothy smirk and winked at me. I winked back. Then we all started walking away.

"Uh… Akira, do you like Katso?" Leorio asked.

"No, why?"

"You just called him cute…"

"That doesn't mean I like him, jeez. I just thought he was good looking. There is a difference you know."

"Yeah but… it's not common for people to go around complimenting others randomly like that." He argued and stopped, so we all stopped for a minute.

"Well, I do that all the time. Right, Kurapika?" I looked at him with a smile. He gave me a small smile back and nodded his head. "Hell I call Kurapika every compliment in the book. Cute, hot, sexy, good looking, handsome, fucking perfect. He doesn't mind it at all. Besides, it's the truth, and I always speak the truth to my friends." I put my arm around Kurapika shoulder and gave him a one armed hug. His cheeks were flushed a bit pink. You had to be as close to his face as I was to see it though.

"Uh…" Leorio looked at me a little confused.

"Look, let's just say that I like giving compliments to people because I don't want them to feel as bad as I do. Besides, I hate being 'common'". I defended.

"As bad as you do?" Gon asked curiously.

"To the map!" I yelled running away going to avoid answering his question.

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><p>We stopped to look at a map so we could check to see where we were going. Although, the thing was the directions that the captain gave us.<p>

"Hey, what's the deal here? The exam's in Zaban city, but the mountain with the seeder tree on it is in the opposite direction." Leorio said.

"You're right" Kurapika agreed.

"Huh, some short cut, going in that direction would be a complete waste of our time. I say we should take the bus to Zaban city instead."

"Leorio, I don't think you should question the person who is actually on the exam committee, directions on how to get where you wanna go." I said. But before anyone could say something, a random guy just popped up behind us.

"If you want to get to Zaban city, there's an express bus that'll take you all the way. The bus stops right over there."

"And who the hell are you?" Leorio and I asked. My own touch was hell, but whatever.

"My name's Matthew. I'm a rookie hunter applicant just like you guys."

"Female" I said.

"And girl." He said looking at me. "It's nice to meet you" He took his hand out and Gon shook it.

"My name is, Gon" He said happily.

Matthew brought his hand to Kurapika and me. He didn't shake it. I did take his hand and I shook it. What I did during the middle of it, was that I started turning my head sideways and just blankly stare at him, not even blinking once. "Sup? My name is Akira."

He let go after that. His facial expression towards me read "Creepy…"

"Ah, don't worry about them; they aren't exactly what you call normal. The name's Leorio"

"Thanks for the compliment, Leorio." I said to him. Honestly, I love being called not normal. It's so boring to be normal, always predicted, and it's just… bleh.

"So… Matthew, are you gonna be taking that bus too?" Leorio asked.

"Oh no not me, I get sick when I take the bus. I'm gonna hike over that mountain; the one with the seeder at the top."

"That's great. We're going that way to." Gon said.

"No way! What a lucky coincidence. I was hoping to find someone else going my way. How about we go together, Gon?"

_Okay… why did I feel some sarcasm in those words? _I thought. _I trust Matthew, but the way he said that sentence is just like… questionable._

"Yeah sure!" Gon agreed.

"But Gon-" Leorio tried to protest.

"I'm going to do what the captain said we should. I'm sure he knows what's best." He said. He and Matthew started walking away.

"You can't always trust everyone, but you're going to have to learn the hard way. I'm gonna take the bus and you should too." Leorio was slightly turned about ready to walk off. Kurapika on the other hand did happen to start walking and I followed after him. "Hey! Where are you going?" He called after us.

"I'm not really interested in what the captain said, but I am interested in what Gon is capable off. I'm gonna stick with him for the time being." He started walking again.

"Plus, I always follow Kurapika and stay by his side no matter what." I started following after him.

"Ugh, and here I thought you guys could think for yourself." Leorio grunted and turned around waving. "See ya later, we haven't known each other long, but I wish you all the best."

"Thanks Leorio, take care of yourself" Matthew called back to him.

"And try not to get killed!" I called as well. "You know, because that would be bad!" I smiled to myself.

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><p>So we were all walking up into the mountain. I was in my usual position of standing next to Kurapika. The silence was killing me though. I've always hated awkward silences. They just felt like… ugh. <em>I wonder… <em>I was thinking about how quiet it was. _If it's this quiet… and we're in a very large area… would there be an echo if I screamed?_

I stopped for a minute and the guy all stopped for a second to turn around and look at me.

"Hey, Akira… is everything-"

I cut off Gons' question, with a blood curdling scream. It was so loud, all the birds within thirty feet got so scared, that they flew off.

Kurapika just stood there holding his ears, cringing. While Gon and Matthew were taken back and got so scared that they jumped. Although, Matthew fell down and started holding his ankle. I was done after I saw him holding his ankle. I dropped down beside him. "Oh my Matthew! Are you okay?"

"I don't know" He responded with pain in his voice.

"Do you think you can get up and walk?"

"Uh… yeah. I think so" He tried getting up, but fell back down on one knee. "No, I can't."

"Oh my fucking French toast, I am so sorry. Do you want a get on my back? I can carry you up the mountain." I asked.

He said sure as I helped him up on my shoulders. "And Akira, if you get tired, I'll carry him alright?" Gon said offering a hand. I nodded a smile at him and we continued our way up.

After a few minutes, we ended up in a forest. "How is your leg feeling?" Gon asked.

"Does it still hurt?" I asked chiming in.

"Yeah, I think I might have sprained it, I guess I'm not use to hiking around the mountains. I'm sorry" He apologized.

"Or not use to girls screaming like bloody Mary was chasing her" I said jokingly. "But don't worry about it, no need to apologize"

"Say, Akira" Gon said suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you scream like that anyway?"

"Huh? Oh, no reason. I wanted to do it to see if there would be an echo."

"She usually does it whenever she wants as well. No warning, she's always been that one person who would want to do something crazy" Kurapika explained. "Sometimes she says things, other times it's just plain screaming."

"Kurapika knows me so well" I said in a fake teary happy voice. "I'd hug you if I didn't have this guy on my back."

"Oh! Yeah." Gon exclaimed excitedly. "Wait here a minute, okay guys?"

"What? Why?" I asked.

"There might be some medicinal herbs around here! I'm gonna go take a look." He said running off.

"Oh Gon, let me come help you out!" I said putting Matthew down. "Hey what are you doing?" He asked confused. I walked away really fast.

I caught up with Gon. Who was looking near some bushes. Then Kurapika was about a few feet away when I heard Matthew calling out to Gon and I and then a roar of a Rhino. "Put those things away right now!" Kurapika turned around out from behind a tree, yelling at Matthew. "I don't think they'll do much good anyway."

Gon and I walked out from the other side. We walked up towards the Rhino really slowly to make sure not to encourage it in anyway.

"Gon! Akira!" Kurapika said. "It's already prepared to attack. We have no choice."

"Just give me a second" We said together.

"He's just a little mad that we're trespassing on his territory." Gon said smiling. "I'm sorry we didn't know this was your territory."

"Yeah, big guy. We're really sorry but we're just passing through. Is that cool with you?" I said smiling holding my hand out, I had an apple in my hand trying to see if it would take it.

"Guys watch out!" I heard Leorio call. I got so surprised to see him just jump over our heads and hit the Rhino in the nose! "Take that!" He said.

Obviously Kurapika, Gon and I all had the same reaction. _Oh god… he just hit the rhino. This, wow. _I thought.

The rhino got so angry that he roared once again and it started charging after Leorio.

"I thought he took the bus, but guess not."

Right then and there, I fell on the ground laughing my ass off. I don't know why, but him running away so fast from an animal was just fucking hilarious to ignore.

The guys looked at me, and waited for me to calm down, and then we all ran after Leorio. Who got stuck in a tree. When I saw that, I went back to laughing again. Leorio was doing a bit explaining, while I was in my own fit. "The bus was a trap?" Gon asked.

"Yeah. I have had a really rough day."

"And then you decided to come and see if Gon was okay. How noble." Kurapika said.

"Well no, it wasn't exactly like that" He defended. "I just thought that you guys would've missed me by now. You know what they say, "Life's journey seems long without friends!"" He chuckled at the end. "So Gon and Akira, as a friend; would you please tell that rhino to get lost already!"

I gave the rhino the apple I had, and then Gon talked the rhino away. "See you around!" He waved at the leaving animal.

"So how much more time are we gonna waste around, standing here?" Matthew asked annoyed. We looked at him. "Some of those other guys are probably already ahead of us. If we had just kept going, like I said we should, we could've avoided all this trouble."

"Yeah, but that okay." Gon said with optimism. "Cause now Leorio's now back with us. And it seems like your ankle is feeling much better."

"You must heal very fast Matthew." Kurapika said with a hint of sly in his voice and a smirk on his face. I was leaning one shoulder on Kurapika and holding my head up with my hand.

I had a smug grin on my face. _Aha, you fail._

* * *

><p>We finally made it to a town. I was listening to music on the way here. One of the headphones was pushed back so I could hear what the guys were talking about.<p>

"This place gives me the creeps." Leorio said. "There doesn't seem to be anybody here"

"Yeah, but there are people." Gon said.

"Hmm. So stay alert." Kurapika added.

"What do you mean? How can you tell?" Leorio asked confused.

"You mean you can't hear the sound of people breathing?" Kurapika asked like it was the most simplest thing in the world.

"Yeah and I can hear their clothes wrestling too. Wonder why they're hiding?" Gon added.

"I'm not focusing on anything really but my music. I can just tell there are people here by the fact that they have their clothes hanging on a clothes line." I said while yawning at the end. "Man I'm getting tired." I said in a mumble.

Gon ran a few feet ahead. "Aha! There you are ma'am! I found you."

"Hey guys." Matthew said.

We all turned around to see all these people in white robes and masks with colorful hair. All you could hear them say is "**Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump**".

"Ba-bump! Ba-bump! Who the hell are these people?" Leorio said. He was pist, I could tell. "Hey Matthew, are you sure we're on the right path?"

"Yeah I'm positive." He answered. "But if you want to turn back now, I'm not gonna stop you."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'll do." He said turning around. "I'm sick and tired of all these dumb traps. I thought the bus would be the end of it, but noooo" He held out the 'o' in a sarcastic tone.

He was about to walk off until Kurapika stopped him. "Hang on Leorio, like he said, this is the right path."

"It's true" Gon agreed. "All the other paths are guarded by strange animals and magical beasts. I stayed away from them on my way up here and that's what lead us to this town."

"Really?" I asked surprised. "I didn't know that at all, I was just following you guys while carry that guy on my back" I pointed to Matthew. _Gon is one smart cookie._

Kurapika nodded, and Leorio just started protesting. "Okay that's enough." The old woman said while walking in front of all the people in robes. "You boys are headed for the loan seeder right?"

"I'm a girl! Seriously!" I sighed.

"Never the less, if you want to make it to the top of the mountain, you're going to have to get past this town. The other paths along this mountain are a labyrinth of dead ends; filled with horrible beasts and monsters. Just as the boy said." She stated referring to Gon.

"Hey look! The captain had the same mark on his card!" Gon said surprised, gesturing to the old lady's cane.

"Then that means, this old woman, is here to screen applicants on the way to the exam site." Kurapika pointed out.

"Ugh. Are you trying to say this old woman is one of the examiners?" Leorio asked annoyed.

"Ba-Bump." And with that ba-bump, they all started making the noise again. **Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump**. Then out of nowhere, her face get all scary and she yelled "It's time for the mind bobbling two choice quiz!" She kept a poker face while explaining. "I am about to present you with a single question. You'll have five seconds to give me your answer. If you answer incorrectly, you'll be disqualified and will not be eligible to take the exam" I looked at all the guys real quick. Matthew was the only one with a smug look on his face. "You will answer by saying one or two. If you give another answer, no matter how clever it is, you'll be wrong."

"Wait a minute; you're saying we all have to answer the same question?" Leorio asked.

"That's right. I thought that would moves things along quicker"

"But that means if he gives a wrong answer, then I'll be disqualified too." He said pointing to Kurapika. I face palmed myself with a smile, trying to hold back my fits of giggles.

"That's unlikely." I looked at Kurapika's face real quick. It was a face that was saying 'The hell are you talking about'. This was just making so funny to me. "There's more of a possibility that you'll be the one who messes it up for all of us."

_Okay, I am not going to laugh. I am not going to laugh. I am _not _going to laugh. _I thought

"But as long as one of us knows the right answer we'll all be okay." Gon smiled. "But don't count on me, I'm no good at this" He started laughing.

_Awwww. Gon is too adorable. _I went and hugged him. He was a little shocked at first but smiled. "I'm sorry, Gon, but you're laugh is just too adorable" I smiled at him. "Oh and guys." I said getting back up "Depending on the question, you might be able to count on me, I'm good at riddles."

"Thanks, but no thanks" Matthew said. "If you don't mind, I'd rather take my chances and go first. Is that okay, grandma?" He asked.

"My, my, brimming with confidence, I see." She said "That's fine by me."

"Alright! Then we got a deal. You see, I can't risk flunking out because of you losers."

"But… Matthew" Gon and I looked at him questioningly.

"I'm sorry you guys, but to be honest, I never had any intention of becoming your buddies. I was only using you to find this town. It's that kind of thinking that will help me win this quiz. Besides, you wouldn't be much help anyway."

"You better take that back" Leorio said.

"Let him go ahead." Kurapika said calmly. "If we listen to the answer that he gets, it might help us figure out the answer to ours."

"Smart thinking, Kurapika." I said while lazily hugging him around his neck from the side. _Besides, big nose doesn't wanna friends with us. But I wish him the best anyway. _I thought.

"I guess that's true, but still." Leorio agreed.

"Okay, let's get this over with, Grandma." Matthew said cockily.

"Here is your question: Your mother and your true love have both been kid napped, you can only save one of them. Whom do you choose? One: Your mother or two: your true love?"

The question was pretty crazy. It took me back a bit. Although I knew right away who I would've saved. On the other hand, I could tell the other guys were thinking about how this question seemed impossible. "Hey Kurapika" I whispered into his ear, since I was still hugging him. "You know how easy this question is for me?"

"Yeah, but not everyone is like you. So shhh" He said.

I looked at Matthew and his face was confident.

"You have five seconds to answer the question. Five, four, three-"

"One."

"And why did you choose answer?"

"It wasn't all that hard really. You only get one mother in the entire world, but you can always go out find yourself a new girlfriend."

_What a dumbass. _I thought. _You must really suck at relationships._

The ba-bump people were all crowding around for a minute discussing the answer. They stopped and separated. "You may pass…" The old lady said.

"I'll keep going, but I'm sure I'll see you up a head." Matthew said then started running off.

I cupped my hand around my mouth in the way to make a megaphone with them and yelled. "I hope you run into a tree and fall down the worlds longest set of stairs, you jackass!" I yelled at him as he disappeared.

It got quiet once again, but Leorio yelled. "You've got to be kidding! What kind of quiz is this? There is no possible way to answer like that! So let's say he choose to save his girlfriend, how could that be considered a wrong answer? Or do you want us to choose the answer that you'd prefer? You can forget it. I'm going to try and find another way."

_I love how you automatically assume he would have a girlfriend, bro. _I thought. _Maybe he could've liked guys._

"Hmm. If you leave now, you'll be disqualified immediately." She defended. "You don't have what it takes to be a hunter anyway."

I stopped my music in time to hear something. It sounded like a scream. _Oh wow. I think I get it. _I thought. _Gon and Kurapika must have heard it too. I mean, Gon just tried to move. Although Kurapika just stopped him._

"Leorio!" Kurapika called.

"What? Don't tell me you think we should play along with this idiotic game?"

"But this quiz-"

"That's enough." She yelled at Kurapika. We turned to look at her. "I forbid you from saying another word." She said looking at Kurapika. She had a smug look on her face. "From now on no unnecessary chit chat or you'll all be disqualified."

_Time to get serious. _

"Now answer me this, one you will take this quiz, or two you will not."

"We choose one!" Kurapika and I said in unison.

"Now listen closely. Your son and your daughter have both been abducted. You can only have one of them back. Whom do you choose? One: your daughter or two: your son."

_Maybe I should say something, but what if it's wrong? _I started debating with myself. _Although, maybe I should just stay quiet. My instincts are telling me to do that. But maybe they're wrong… ugh. Fuck it, fine. I'll just stay quiet. Kurapika will probably- _"Leorio, what are you doing?" I asked myself in a whisper.

"Five, four, three, two, one." The old woman was counting down. "Beeeer. You're time is up."

"Yeah! Well so is yours!" Leorio yelled holding up a large wooden stick about to strike down at the old lady.

She didn't move. "Hmm. Should I consider this your answer?"

"No!" I said.

"Leorio!" Kurapika yelled at him.

"Ugh. You think you can make fun of us by answering these ridiculous questions? And who do you think you are anyway? Telling me I don't have what it takes to become a hunter? Well I'm done with you!" He said fuming.

"Calm down, Leorio."

"I will not!" He said with plenty of rage noticeable. Then he started going off about threatening the exam committee and how this quiz is even relevant to anything.

"Are you trying to get her to disqualify all of us?" Kurapika said trying to talk some sense into him. Leorio looked at him confused. "I guess you may not have noticed… but we passed." Then he calmed down enough to a good level. Though confusion still noticeable on his face. "Silence. Silence is the most appropriate response." He said explaining. "Like you said so eloquently," He continued with a hint of sarcasm in that sentence. "There could never be an answer to a question like that. You were right; this is a quiz without an answer. We were given two choices and neither of them were good." He held a finger in front of his mouth "But a third option, was to remain completely silent."

"But what about Matthew? He made it!" He asked irritation present.

"She didn't say he was right" I said. "She said he could pass."

"That's correct." He continued. "A few minutes ago, I heard him scream. Which means he was probably attacked by some kind of monster or beast; He tried to betray us, so he just ended up digging his own grave. Which leaves me to believe, that this isn't the correct path after all" He finished his deduction.

Leorio was still confused.

"That is correct" The old woman said. "The true path lies beyond this door. It's a straight road. It should take you about two hours to reach the top."

So blah blah blah, Leorio ended up apologizing and we were going to go through the path.

The guys went up ahead, but I stayed back for a minute. "Hey, miss old lady person." I called.

"Yes? What is it dear girl?"

"Do you think you could give me one of those impossible questions, for the road?" I smiled at her.

"Alright." She smiled back. "Your most best friend and your first true love are both about to be killed. And you only have time to save one of them. Whom do you save? One: your best friend or two: your first love?"

"Uh…" I could feel my face go white at the question. My eyes were opened in surprise. "I have to really think about that one…?" I thought. "Well thanks, miss old lady person. I think about it. But I gotta go now, bye!" I said as I started running to catch up with the guys.

_So… to choose between Kurapika… or _him_? _I thought. _Wow… I honestly don't know about that one..._

I finally caught up to them. "Hey, Akira?" Gon asked.

"Yeah?"

"What did you and that old lady talk about?"

"Oh, I just asked her for another question to think about"

"What? Are you kidding?" Leorio asked.

"Well excuse me for actually having to think about things that could happen." I defended.

"Yeah, I still don't get it either" Gon said.

"What? It's over now, Gon. Don't have to worry about it anymore" Leorio said.

"Yeah I know, but it's just that…"

"What?"

"Well… what if you were put into that situation and you could only save one of two people who were important to you?" They stopped and stared at, Gon.

"Seriously guys, anything can happen in this world." I agreed. Gon and I started running, because we were close to the exit. The guys following behind us.

_I mean… how do I choose between, Kurapika… and him?_

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, reviews please? c:<strong>

**Let me know how my story is going :D**

**I will try to make it better. And Like yeah. She will talk more. No problema c:**

**I love you all. :D!**


	4. Chapter 4

_Okay, seriously. This tunnel was longer than I expected it to be. The light always looks closer than it really is. Fuuuuck. My fault for thinking a two hour tunnel would be shorter. Well, at least we'll get there soon. _I thought. _I like banana's, I wonder what happened to the elephants that fly into outer space. I wanna go into outer space. I'll bring a dog with me. I shall name him Steve. Kurapika will be his butler. Wait no; he'll pay for the butler. Wait; why not make it a monkey butler. Kurapika won't pay, the Hunter License card will. Why is Leorio falling behind us? _I stopped in my thoughts to turn my head around and looked at him.

Gon and Kurapika were talking about the people called "Navigators". Kurapika already taught me about this before, when we decided to take the exam. He was saying "how they are the ones who are suppose to lead us to the exam site" and "and we have to prove to them that we're worthy enough".

"Is this tunnel ever going to end?" Leorio asked slightly annoyed at the fact that the tunnel wasn't as short as he expected. He sighed and put his brief case down and squatted in tiredness. "I thought this was supposed to take us two hours. It was two hours, two hours ago!" Gon, Kurapika and I were all smiling at Leorio. "I'm starving to death and I really have to go to the bathroom" He kept complaining. We all sighed at him.

"You know you could always just stop and take a piss against the cave wall!" I called out to him. "Not like any of us are going to look…" I said to myself.

"Don't fall behind!" Gon said.

"But can't we just rest for a bit?" He asked.

"But I can see the exit!" Gon said happily and Leorio jumped up with much enthusiasm and ran ahead of us to the exit.

Leorio stopped and looked at the outside world from the other end of the cave with a confused look on his face. "And when they stepped out of the cave, they found themselves on the edge of a lake…" He said like he was narrator for a book or a movie. "What are we suppose to do now? Swim?" He yelled out bitterly because it was obvious that he didn't know what we were supposed to do next.

"Well… I would swim, but like you know, the water is gross, and then there are the possibilities of leaches grabbing at me, and sucking my blood, so I could faint in the water. Then there's the fact that-" Leorio gave me an irritated look. So I stopped until he turned his head back. "Alligatorscouldalsobethere and Idontwanttobeeaten" I said really fast but then he just sighed away the little vein on his head that showed up.

"Hey look there's a boat over here" Gon exclaimed cheerfully and he ran towards said boat.

We all climbed in. Gon and Kurapika took the ore's. I would get to row next if the lake was just that long enough, that we would need to switch.

"Awww, this stupid boat's leaking" Leorio pointed out.

"It won't be a problem, if you could plug it up until we get across" Kurapika retorted as he continued to row.

"Ugh. Don't tell me this is another part of the hunter exam" Leorio groaned inwardly.

"Well Leorio, it could be part of the baking contest in Honolulu~" I said sarcastically. Honestly, I didn't know myself if this really was part of the hunter exam. _You can never be too careful though. Since the path from the old woman led us up to this swamp, and this boat is leaking, it could've been like some kind of test of how to fix or deal with things. _I thought while swaying side to side slightly. I was in my own little world. I would always just start doing random movements, despite whatever was going on at the moment. In my little movements, I never thought of anything. I was just there. I could hear and see things still, but I was just empty in the head.

"Is she alright?" Gon asked out loud.

I could tell Leorio was giving me the 'what the fuck' kind of face. "What is she doing…?" He asked.

"Oh don't worry about her. She tends to do this a lot actually. At random times in random place. I can assure you, she's completely fine." Kurapika explained. "Believe me, I know everything about her. This isn't even as weird as it can get."

"But… she hasn't blinked either though…" Gon said worrying.

"Don't worry about that either. She will, and when she does, she'll come back."

Leorio waved a hand in front of my face and then I started blinking my way back into reality. "Well, lookie here." I said as I looked into the water. We started rowing past a sign.

"It's a magical beast warning sign." Leorio stated.

"Yeah I know" Kurapika said.

"Magical Beasts?" Gon and I said together. I guess Gon didn't expect magical beasts either by the tone of his voice.

* * *

><p>While we were still rowing, Leorio decided to plug up the hole with his jacket. I helped him by holding down his jacket with him.<p>

"I've been trying to come up with a way to impress the navigators when we find them. But… I can't think of anything" Gon said out loud.

"Let me see…" Kurapika started thinking.

Yet Leorio just laughed. "Everybody knows a good first impression is all about how you look." He mused like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

_Shallow twat. _I thought bitterly bringing my hand to my head in a slow motion face palm. I sighed. _Looks, looks, looks. No, just no._

"I'm sorry Gon, but you're not going to be too much help" He continued on "And Kurapika you're way to short! And Akira you're just-"I stared at him blankly wondering what he would say "Weird, no offense"

"None taken. Thanks for the compliment." I said. I really did take weird as a compliment; it just means I'm not the average of what people see. This is something I take pride in.

"But I'm sure that my superior stature will impress any navigator" Leorio said complimenting himself. I thought I could see part of his ego just popping out of him and dancing but I guess nothing's wrong with some good self esteem.

"Could that work?" Gon asked while he and Kurapika were looking at each other.

"No, It definitely won't" Kurapika said shutting the idea down. Inwardly started chuckling to myself at Leorios reaction.

"What was that?" Leorio ask irritated by the sudden shut down. He balled his hand into a fist and the look on his face was priceless to me.

"There must be some other way we can win their favor" Kurapika added to his previous sentence "And not with our physical strength either"

"Huh?" Leorio didn't understand. I don't know why, but he didn't.

"Like intelligence of knowledge. For example, Gon, what are you really good at and how can you use that to your advantage?" Kurapika asked.

"Hmm… I guess I never really thought about it." Gon admitted. He started thinking of into space.

"Even though you may not know it, you are talented a bunch of different things" Kurapika said.

Those words, I remember when he said that exact same sentence to me.

_I was around twelve years old. I remember when I was just sitting out in the forest that separated our two clans. I was sitting under a tree, looking out into the small lake that was in the middle of that small forest. I was holding my arm, I was in pain. I came out from the school that day holding back tears until I got to that specific spot._

"_You're worthless. You can't do anything right." One boy said to me._

"_I don't care how smart you are, you don't know how to protect yourself in anything. You're weak. You wouldn't make it in any kind of fight. You have no ability. No talent." Another girl said insulting me._

_I just sat there and took the insults. Slowly letting my anger build up. I held it back down though. "They're right, I'm too weak to fight, and I am worthless if I can't defend myself." I said slowly. Tears started coming out of my eyes. "They had a right to push down a worthless nothing like me"_

_I heard some bushes rustling next to me. Kurapika popped out. "Hey Akira"_

_I wiped my face really fast letting my arm get soaked in tears. I had to try my best to hold my tears back. I was never going to cry in front of Kurapika. I haven't before and I don't want to start now. I really don't want to burden him with my problems either. "Hi Kurapika" I put on a fake smile "What's up?"_

"_Well school is done" He paused and looked at my face "Your face…" He reached out and touched my cheek "Your cheek is a little wet and your nose is red" He processed it all "Were you crying?"_

"_Uh… No." I said trying to see if he would not insist._

"_You don't have to lie to me, Akira." Kurapika said looking at me in a serious, yet sensitive way. "I'm your friend. You can talk to me"_

_I started to explain to him what happened to me. Told them about how I got bullied again. He got a bit shocked that it's happened more than once, but he still listened._

"_I don't think you're worthless. You have plenty of talent. Sure you may not be the best fighter around but that's not the most important thing you need to be. You may not know it, but you are talented at a bunch of different things."_

_That was the day I declared Kurapika my best friend. After I saw the kindness he had in his eyes, I started crying. I knew he was nice, but right then… he helped me so much with just that smile. I slowly started crying again and threw my arms around him in a hug. I let the tears flow, and he just hugged me back letting my emotions fall out onto his clothes._

_And from that day on _I thought _Kurapika has helped me train and has helped my fighting ability. I can fight almost as well as he can. Not as well, but I still have to practice if I ever want to be._

"Now Leorio on the other hand…" Kurapika got cut off mid-sentence by Leorio.

"My greatest strength is my courage. Monsters, bring them on" He said. I heard the water shifting behind me and I turned around to see… a giant monster… perfect.

Kurapika and Gon were just as shocked as I was. I could tell by their faces. "Leorio… behind you" Kurapika warned.

"Behind me?"

"Yeah look" Gon pointed behind Leorio.

He turned around to look straight at the monster. It roared loudly and Leorio started rowing as fast as a speeding train. "YEE HAW!" I yelled as I held onto my beanie. He rowed so out of control that he hit a rock and we went flying! "Whoa shit! Cannon ball!" I continued with my screaming as we fell down with a loud boom. It's amazing the boat didn't shatter on impact.

Leorio still freaking out kept rowing although we hit land.

"Uh… Leorio" Kurapika said his name and he slowly started registering at the fact we hit land.

Gon gave him his briefcase and we started climbing out one by one. I tripped over the edge on the way out and fell on the ground. It didn't hurt that much, but Kurapika helped me back up. He asked me if I was all right. I smiled reassuring him that I was. "You're bleeding a bit, Akira." He said wiping the few bleeding cuts on my arm.

"It's a good thing I brought some band aids~" I chimed in getting them out of my bag. I picked out the colorful four band aids that I wanted to use. Two green, one blue and one orange. Kurapika helped me put them on while Leorio was just praising himself about how with him rowing the boat, they got across a lot faster. Blah blah blah.

Gon, Kurapika and I looked and saw that there was a rundown ruin. Leorio finally caught wind and started looking over at us.

"Are these ancient ruins?" Gon asked.

"Yes, I believe they're from the ancient Sumi tribe" Kurapika answered.

"Of course you would know, Kurapika" I smiled said leaning an elbow on his shoulder.

We continued looking at the writing carved into the stone. "Can you read what it says?"

"Yes… but parts of it are missing so I don't know for sure what it says."

"Better to have all the words then to just bullshit some words." I cut in, not really talking to anyone but myself.

"Yeah, but from what I can tell; it seems to be some kind of warning for anyone who intrudes on this place."

"Hey!" Leorio spoke "Forget the ruins. Why don't we try to find the path? You know, the one that granny told us about?"

"Oh. That path is right in front of us" Gon pointed.

Leorio and the rest of us took a look at what we would have to walk along. "This looks more like a long winding road. I thought she said it was suppose to be straight"

I walked up to Leorio. "She said it would lead us straight there. Which doesn't necessarily mean the road is straight. Isn't that right Gon?" Kurapika retorted and Gon nodded agreeing.

"Learn your play on words, big boy" I said patting Leorios shoulder.

He gave me an annoyed look with a pout and said "Bah, well I appreciate you spelling it out for me." He started walking ahead of us. I waited a second for Kurapika and got behind him. I jumped up and he caught me in a piggy back ride position.

Gon looked at me strangely for a second. I stared back smiling. "You wondering why I did that?" he nodded. "Well when you got a best friend who is use to your randomness, you can do that"

We continued walking on the path, the three of us catching up to Leorio little by little and talking. "So Akira?"

"Yeah Gon?"

"How long have you and Kurapika been friends?"

"Well, Akira and I, met in the forest when we were… about seven?"

"You were seven, I was six" I corrected.

"You guys are a year apart?" Gon continued to ask.

"No, just a few months. His birthday is in April and mine is in September. September 1st." I added.

"How did you guys meet in a forest?" Leorio asked curiously.

"The forest was in between our two allied tribes." I said "I was chasing my dog around the town and he ran into the forest. I didn't want him to get lost, so I went after him."

"It technically wasn't your own dog" Kurapika cut in.

"So I picked up a stray, sue me." I joked "But then after I saw that she stopped by the lake, I saw a little blonde kid sitting next to her."

"Yeah, Kiki was one friendly dachshund." Kurapika added in reminiscing.

"Kiki?" Leorio laughed.

"I was six years old, bro. Get off my back" I chuckled. "But then I went up to the blonde kid and thank him for stopping my dog. Who turned out to be-"I put a hand on Kurapikas head "This good looking guy right here" I said messing up his hair. "So we talked and talked until it got dark, then we agreed to meet up by the lake the next day and the next day; So on and so forth, etcetera etcetera."

"Sounds nice" Gon said cheeky. "Sounds like you guys got to be really close."

"You have no idea." I said "Kurapika knows everything about me; he's the greatest friend I got." I hugged Kurapika around his neck as we kept walking about some other little things. We got into a forest filled with a bunch of trees, some broken and fallen over. A bunch of mushrooms and vines sprouted all over the place. Rocks here and there. I don't think I really need to describe a forest really.

"We're never going to get the exam at this rate." Leorio started complaining. "Hey look it's another one of those warning signs. Hey Gon, are you sure you know where we're going, how do you know we aren't walking into magical beast territory?"

"You don't have to worry about any of that. There aren't any magical beasts or monsters anywhere around here"

"Oh yeah? Then I'd like to know how you'd explain the warning signs we've been passing."

"I'm surprised you can see so well in this darkness" Kurapika said.

"Yeah Gon, It's pretty wicked." I said complimenting the little boy.

"My house on Whale Island was in the middle of the mountains. So it's always dark like this. But being in this forest… it's different." We walked a bit more and then "There it is! Right over there, it's the loan seeder tree!" He said with joy.

"Whoop whoop!" I cheered as I got off of Kurapikas back. "As much as I hate walking, I say we should make our way faster to the home I see."

* * *

><p>Leorio knocked on the door, but there wasn't an answer.<p>

"No one's home?" Kurapika asked "That's strange; the old woman said a couple lived here"

"Well what should we do now? Gon questioned.

"Well I'm going inside" Leorio said as he opened the door.

We all gasped at the sight of the magical beast. "And this ladies and gentlemen is why you don't open a door in the forest." I said out of shock.

The magical beast leapt into the air and pushed us out of the way of his escape. The man back in the house calling for his wife in despair.

While I was in mid air I flipped around so I could land on my feet. Gon and Kurapika also landed and the three of us ran towards the beast. Kurapika shouted at Leorio to see if the man was hurt, and we continued to chase the magical monster. The beast nearly lost us in the chase when it hit the forest. Gon although could tell exactly where the beast was running. _It's pretty amazing how Gon can actually see it though. _I thought_._ We ran in the direction Gon pointed out. The guys jumped into the trees and I followed in their actions.

Kurapika paused on a tree top "This kid's really something."

"He really is. I wouldn't be surprised if he was like, part animal or something." I said stopping next to him. Kurapika nodded and we continued jumping from tree to tree following Gon.

He managed to catch up to the beast. "You let her go! Right now!" He yelled at it.

"Hahaha why don't you try and make me?" The beast called back. Sounding all sly like~  
>It the continued to jump faster and farther away.<p>

We finally caught up to Gon. "Did you hear that? It talks!"

"Of course it can talk, it's a magical beast." Kurapika said.

"That one is known as a Kiriko, it's also known as a shape shifter. They can change into anything even a human." I explained.

"So don't let your guard down" Kurapika finished.

"If I can communicate with it, then this will be easy!" Gon chimed with excitement. He sprang forward and yelled out "I've got you now kirirko!" and then he bonked his fishing line on top of its head. Therefore dropping the wife. Kurapika leapt forward and caught her in one arm as he held onto a branch with his other hand. I was crouching on top the branch watching Gon as he kept chasing the Kiriko away.

Kurapika got down from the tree and I tried to wake the woman up. She did. She asked us who we were, and we tried our best to calm her down a reassure her that her husband was fine, when she asked. She was worried and held Kurapikas hand in both of hers as she kept begging us to take her back to her husband.

_Man this woman is really worried; must really love her husband. _I thought. _I understand that feeling. _Kurapika was staring at her tattoos when I told him, that we really should help her out. I took a quick glance at her tattoos as well. Why did they seem so familiar…?

Screw it. "Hey Kurapika, you can handle her on your own right? I want to go help out Gon. I know he can handle himself, but still…"

"Yeah it's okay. You can go help him. I got her" Kurapika said.

"Thank you!" I said happily and ran off into the direction that I saw Gon go. I ran farther and farther. Until I finally hit a brook that connected to waterfall not too far away. "I just don't get it… why would the beasts attack tonight specifically? I mean, if they really were magical beasts, they could've killed the couple a long time ago…" I heard some rustling in some bushes behind me. I turned around to find another Kiriko vanish. "Was it just watching me or did it not notice me and went on its marry way…"

I walked up the stream towards the waterfall and saw Gon. "Gon!" I yelled. Then I saw the kiriko in front of him. It vanished and I started going to him when it did. "Gon, I think I figured- shit!" I cut myself off when the kiriko popped out from the water and scared me.

It attacked Gon, but he defended himself. The furry monster jumped back and flipped off the edge of the waterfall saying "Catch me if you can!"

I stood on the rock next to Gon's and asked "Is it just me… or was he a bit different?" I looked over the edge with Gon, he nodded. He must know what I mean. I knew I figured out something.

He started running and followed him.

We ran into an empty grassy open field. The wind blew gently making the grass move around.

The kiriko was standing a few yards away. We were having a staring contest. "So you managed to keep up with me, kids. But now you're going to pay for what you did." He said to Gon.

"What I did?" He asked slightly confused.

He brought his claws up. _Why both? I never did anything to any of the Kirikos… Ugh. I don't wanna fight. _I thought while sitting down in the grass. "Wait… Gon what did you do?"

The kiriko started to dash towards us. I will admit, I was a little scared that I was about to be shredded by sharp nails, really sharp nails. But Gon didn't move like he was about to attack. I followed Gon's lead and just looked as calm as I could and stayed put. As soon as the nails were about to attack at both of our heads, the magical beast had stopped in place asking "Why are you both just keeping still?"

"Because we have no reason to fight" Gon and I said at the same time.

"I never hit a single one of you creatures. Plus, I don't understand why you guys chose to attack tonight of all nights, instead of attacking the couple a long time ago. It seems to… planned to be a coincidence. So I'm not going to do or say anything until I have all the facts." I stated as I stared up at the creature.

"So… who are you anyway?" Gon asked. The beasts antenna twitched a bit. "You're not the same guy I was chasing before, so it really doesn't make sense to say you're 'paying me back', but I will fight you if I have to."

"Seriously dude, it's not cool to fight someone without a reason." I said. I finally noticed the difference. "Especially if you're not the guy." I understood everything happening.

"Tell me, how could you know?"

"Sometimes, when I look at leaves close enough, I can tell what tree the fell from. Compared to that, you guys were easy. You must have switched places when we were by the waterfall right?"

"The fact that your voices are different is what gave you away to me." I said as I stood up. "It's a bit higher and sharper than the other guys"

The kiriko just stood there as he looked between us and just laughed. It put its hands on our hands and called out "Hey honey! Come on out! This is something you don't get to see every day!" He mused. Then his partner popped out of the grass and came to stand next to the other. "It's been an awful long time since anyone could tell us apart" he said.

"It's exciting isn't it?" The other added.

The guys were beside us a few feet away, mumbling about how they couldn't tell a difference.

"By the way, the one that Kurapika and I hit on the head is the husband." Gon explained to Leorio.

"Yeah? So? That doesn't tell me which one is which!"

"First you predicted the storm out at sea, and now this with the magical beasts? You really are gifted Gon." Kurapika complimented.

"Hey, what about me Kurapika?" I whined in a fake tone. "You already know you're gifted." He smiled.

The kiriko laughed and explained to us that they were the navigators. They explained to us also that the 'husband and wife' were really brother and sister.

The daughter was praising Kurapika about how he had a keen eye and was very smart because of how he knew the tattoos were representing the chastity of the woman. It was obvious that they were all impressed.

Then the son compliment Leorio on how the medical examination was very thorough and how nice he was about keeping him calm when he thought his 'wife' had been taken away. When I looked at Leorio, the face he was making definitely a face of embarrassment. I guess he doesn't want people to know that he can actually be a nice and caring guy.

"Not many applicants can tell us apart. It's not very often we get to meet people like you, Gon and Akira."

They praised Gon on his skill and other stuff. Gon apologized for hitting the husband so hard on the head.

Then they complimented me on my calmness and my cleverness and ability to notice things. For in fact the kiriko I saw did see me. It even heard what I said. Just like Kurapika, I had a keen eye.

Well… I did learn from the best.

They decreed that we passed the test.

Gon smiled, Kurapika and Leorio fist bumped each other, and I started dancing in delight. I ran over to Kurapika and hugged him around his waist, lifted him up and spun him. We looked a bit weird, but you know what? It didn't matter we passed and I'm me, so the guys understood.

"You also seem to be quite strong, Akira…" The daughter chimed in.

"That, and Kurapika is really light" I laughed.

The agreed to fly us to the exam site. We each grabbed onto the legs of the monsters and they flew us into the sky.

Leorio was beginning to freak out and said "Did I mention I'm afraid of heights? So don't drop me please. Please."

"I thought you said your greatest strength was courage?" Kurapika joked.

"Finally we're off to the hunter exam! I wonder what kind of people we are going to see and meet." Gon said out loud to no one at all really.

"I'M FLYING~!" I yelped out in joy. "This is the best thing ever! To the exam site!"


	5. Chapter 5

**AUTHORS NOTE: I AM SO INCREDIBLY SORRY THAT I DIDN'T FINISH THIS FAST ENOUGH. AND THAT IT'S AT A CLIFF HANGER, BUT I PROMISE TO WORK ON THE NEXT CHAPTER RIGHT AFTER THIS.**

**BUT I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS SO FAR c:**

* * *

><p>We all landed on a new piece of land and the navigator was leading us to the to the exam site. We were in a city and as I was looking around I noticed a bunch of pigeons over head above us. I started whistling out to them to see if they would respond. All I did was get some looks from them, and some of them flew away. <em>The fuck did I just say in pigeonese? <em>I thought. The navigator was reading off a piece of paper. The address to the exam hall. "There! That's it. The exam hall!" He pointed a head of us.

We all stopped and looked at the gigantic building before us. All of us were in complete awe. "Man… that is one huge ass building" I said "Awesome…"

"Uh guys… that's not the exam hall." The man leading us said. We looked at him. "This is it over here"

"Herp-a-derp" I said. What an awkward moment. He pointed to a little steak house a few buildings away. "Then… what's in this big building?" I asked.

"It really makes you wonder, huh Akira?" Gon answered with not really an answer.

We walked into the little steak and were greeted kindly.

Leorio couldn't believe it either. Just like the rest of us. He asked the navigator if they were really in the right place.

The navigator just ignored the question. "We'll have the steak combo" He told the chef.

The chef had a smirk on his face "How would you like it done?"

"Grilled over; Low flame"

"But I'm a vegetarian!" I protested. Although I was ignored. The chef told us we could wait in the back room and the worker lead us there.

I took my place next to Kurapika, like I always do, in the big empty room. "Welcome to the Hunter Exam. It always takes new applicants by surprise. They say the number of applicants is in the millions, but only one in ten thousand ever make it to this point." The navigator said.

"What, really?" I asked.

"That's how difficult it is to get to the exam hall. For beginners you four have done exceptionally well. I'd be honored to be your navigator again next year. Here catch." He said tossing each of a badge with a number on it. Leorio and Kurapika caught it with their hands, and Gon caught it with his face, adorable. I didn't think fast enough, so I ended catching it with my teeth. For an accident, I caught it like a boss though. I was number 406. "Good luck rookies, it's time I say good bye"

"Mr. Kiriko!" Gon called. The disguised kiriko turned around to look at him. "Thanks a lot" Gon said holding out his hand.

I walked up next to Gon. The polite thing to do is thanking him. After he shook hands with the Kiriko I hugged him and said "Gracias" with a smile. "Without you, we couldn't be here"

He smiled and the transformed beast went on his way closing the door behind him.

I went back next to Kurapika and took his hand without the button in mine and started moving it in back and forth.

Next the floor started dropping. "The whole floor is dropping" Leorio said stating the obvious.

"I can see that" Kurapika and I said at the same time.

"This is cool" Gon said.

"Forget cool, this is fucking awesome" I said.

A minute later Leorio said "Well he didn't have to say it like that did he? He made it sound like we had no chance of making it our first year."

"One every three years." Kurapika said. We all turned to look at him. "That's the passing rate for rookies applicants. I heard, that some of them don't even make it halfway. That's how difficult the testing can be. Some never recover fully enough to make a second attempt." He stated in a serious tone.

"I don't understand. Why do so many people put themselves through all that just to get a hunter license?" Gon asked.

Leorio and Kurapika looked at him sternly and shocked. "You've made it this far now and you still don't have a clue?" Leorio asked.

"Well I have no place in this speech" I said letting his hand go. It was true though, Kurapika had already read me the riot act about the hunter license card and everything else. _Lets see… _I thought thinking about my past for really no reason at all. _It's been years and looking back on everything, I cant believe Im standing here about to go into exam testing. It's really funny how life can do that. In a blink of an eye, you're four years older. Hmm…_

Leorio and Kurapika were right now telling Gon what it means to be a hunter. Leorio's only interest though was money. Surprise surprise.

_I mean just four years ago my Klan was destroyed along with Kurapika's. Well… At least I survived, I cant believe it. My family is gone, my brother ran away… wait… _I paused. "_Oh my holy fucking glob doggers!_" I yelled. I shocked everyone away from the evil staring contest between Kurapika and Leorio. "_I cant believe I just realized this. I am so stupid._" I said holding my hands to my thrown back head. I was annoyed and mad at myself.

"What are you talking about?" The guys asked me.

"My brother!" I said looking at them. "My brother, Kurapika"

"What about him?"

"He ran away years before the attack. Do you realize what this means?!" I asked excited.

He looked at me for a minute and then realization struck his face. "Oh wow. Why didn't we realize this sooner?"

"'Cause we are fucking morons" I said banging my head against my fist.

"Uh… don't let us in on this. Yeah, we're totally understanding what you guys are talking about." Leorio said sarcastically.

"Sorry, sorry." I apologized. "My brother, he ran away from home when I was nine and he was around… fifteen. He never came back home" I stated. "And the Phantom Troupe attacked my clan when I was just about to turn thirteen. So don't you realize? He could still be alive!" I said.

"Wow really?!" Gon asked smiling.

"Hell yes! Now Im just really pissed at myself. I mean so many years I had to realize this, and I do just now. Ugh, man I am so stupid!" I said closing my eyes and sighing. "I blame you and all the training we had to do to keep me busy, Kurapika." I looked at him boredly pointing at him.

"So…" Leorio said "Gon, back to the question. What kind of hunter are you going to be?"

"Uh… I haven't really thought about it…"

"Well you know what?" I asked. There was a pause and the boys around were looking towards me. "_Penis" _I yelled as soon as the floor came to a stop and the doors opened. The scream echoed out and when we walked out the doors there were people staring at us. Mostly me. I rubbed the back of my neck and lightly chucked to myself saying "Sorry" out loud. The cold eyes of men and barely any woman glaring at me. It just made me feel more uncomfortable. It was very dark down here. The atmosphere felt very… different; ominous in a way.

Gon was smiling "There are a lot of people here" He stated looking around.

"And you guys bring up the number to four hundred and six" A guy sitting above us said. We all looked to the direction of the voice. "Hi, I'm Tonpa" He greeted getting off the ledge of pipes he was sitting on. "I'm number sixteen this year."

"This year?" Kurapika and I asked.

He said it was nice to meet us and shook hands with Gon. He then introduced us to him. I shook his hand with an awkward smile. His hand just devoured mine in the shake, so that's why. He laughed after Leorio declined the hand shake with a friendly wave. "So you're rookies this year, arent'cha?" He asked.

"How can you tell?" Gon asked a bit surprised.

"I just know" He said nicely. "This is my thirty fifth time at the exam"

"Thirty fifth time?!" Gon and I asked smiling.

"Yeah~ So I guess that makes me like an exam veteran. If you have any questions: Im the guy to ask."

"Okay thanks!" We both said.

"Thirty five times?" Leorio asked "What's up with that?"

"So you're the infamous Tonpa." A voice sprang up behind us. We looked and saw a very chubby nerd with quaffed hair.

"And you are?" Tonpa thought "Let me see… uh"

"Oh I don't think you'd know me, Im a rookie. Number one hundred and eighty seven, Nicholas" He introduced.

Gon introduced himself to another person again. Nicholas typed away at his laptop and continued talking "Ah, here we go, Tonpa. This is your thirty fifth attempt at the exam. That's the second highest ever and you managed to make it to this hall over thirty times. Quite an achievement"

"Wait a minute… second highest?" I asked to myself quietly. "Then what's the first?"

"Yeah well, Im great at entering but not so good at passing" He shrugged. "Guess that makes me king of the flunkies" He joked.

"King of the flunkies, huh?" Nicholas smiled. "Yes, I think that's a very appropriate title, I couldn't have said it better myself." He said closing his laptop and excusing himself from the conversation.

"Well then…" I sighed.

"Woah, can that guy be any more annoying?" Leorio asked sarcastically.

"Heh heh… Kick a man while he's down huh?" Tonpa chuckled. "Well unfortunately everything that he said was true." He rubbed his head. "It looks like there are going to be a lot more intense competitiors this year than previous ones. Check it out"

We looked at some of the competitors and saw one talking about how he was a ninja. A bold ninja telling people he is a ninja. The behind him, I saw a boy around Gon's age, I think, with white hair. _He'll be so much cuter when he's older. I can tell._

Then there was a loud scream. "Aww man, screaming was my thing dude." Most of the people diverted their attention towards it to see a guy being half phased into a wall. _Oh… well if that's what happened, then I can accept that scream til now… _I thought. "Kurapika did you see that? The guy, half of him is in the wall" I stated a little bit freaked out. "I wish I knew how to walk through walls…"

"Ugh the maniac's back this year" Tonpa said in a less than enthusiastic tone.

"Who is he?" I asked. "And where did he get his dye job? His blue hair is fantastic."

"Number forty four, Hisoka the magician. Rumor last year was that he was going to pretty much pass until he killed an examiner last year that he didn't like. On top of that he killed twenty other examiners. If I were you I wouldn't go anywhere near him."

"Then how is someone like that allowed back again this year?" Leorio asked.

"Ah… they change the examiners every year. An examiner can pass anyone no matter how evil they are. Even the devil… That's just the way things are."

The guys turned to look at me and Kurapika put a hand on my shoulder. "What?" I asked.

"Don't go near him, Akira, got that?" Leorio said.

"What makes you think I would-"

"Akira, you go up to anyone with which what you call good hair, I know your taste, and then try to talk to them. You're very… sociable; more than likely to talk to him more than any of us" Kurapika defended squeezing my shoulder gently.

"Well… you're not wrong Kurapika…" I said sighing. "I will stay away from him." Kurapika smiled at me. "Right after this" I said jerking from the group and walking up to Hisoka.

"What is she crazy?!" Tonpa asked "Does she have a death wish?"

"No comment" Kurapika answered him.

"Huh…?" The boys asked a little confused. They understood it more as a rhetorical question, but apparently Kurapika did not. Leorio called out to me, but I put my hand up as a way to say 'just wait a second.'

I came up behind Hisoka and tapped him on the shoulder. I had to admit was scared deep inside me, but I mean there's no reason for someone to kill you over a compliment, right? He turned around and looked down on me because I was obviously shorter than him. "Uh… Hello Mr. Hisoka sir dude guy." I greeted him awkwardly "It is Hisoka right?"

"Yes" He answered with a half creepy grin.

"Well… I just wanted to say Hi and that I really like your blue hair." I slightly smiled. The guys were waiting a few feet away watching in suspense. Kurapika had his weapon ready behind him, I could tell in the quick glimpse that I caught of the group. "Oh and I love the card symbols you have on your shirt too."

He looked at me for a quick minute and changed his creepy grin to a weird smirk, an unreadable smirk. What he did next kind of scared me. He put his hand on my head. I got scared because I thought he was going to snap my next or something, but instead he patted my head. "Hahaha… cute, thank you Akira."

"How did you know my name?"

"I heard it when you people were talking" He answered, that weird smile never leaving his face.

"Oh… well you're welcome, Hisoka"

"Now, I think you should get back to your group." He took his hand off my head and nodded towards the guys. "Especially to your blonde boyfriend over there. He seems a bit jealous that you're talking to me right now" He smirked again.

"Boyfriend? Ahaha, that's funny… Kurapika isn't my boyfriend, but okay" I said starting to back away. I turned around, but he put a hand on my shoulder and whispered something in my ear then used the same hand to push me back to the group.

"Akira!" Gon said coming up to me "Are you okay?"

"Did he hurt you at all?" Kurapika asked coming up behind him.

"Why did you do that?!" Leorio asked.

"Were you trying to get killed?" Tonpa asked. In no tone of worry, just curiosity in his voice.

"Yes, No, Because I can, and no" I answered each question thrown at me in order. "Guys… Im fine" I said reassuring them.

"What did he whisper to you right before you left?" Kurapika asked sternly.

_He put his hand on my shoulder and whispered "Let's talk again somewhere more private later on." in a breathy voice. It sent a chill running up and down my spine and before I could answer I was pushed back to Kurapika._

"Uh… nothing way important, so I'll tell you later, okay Kurapika?" I had no problem telling Kurapika, I just didn't want the other guys getting involved, just in case something could happen. I don't know how well they can take care of themselves yet against someone of that caliber.

I turned around and stood next to Kurapika and put an arm around his neck and started to relax from everyone. Kurapika being there next to me was how I always relaxed. Then suddenly a really loud bell rang and I jumped. "Nobody saw that!" I said. We all looked toward the direction of the sound and saw a man holding a weird looking face thing that the noise was coming from. The man was tall and dressed in a suit, and his hair was parted and curled at the bottom. He did have some style with those clothes and that mustache pulled it all together. The only thing that bothered me was… his mouth. He didn't have one…

He started talking saying things about how registration was closed and that if you're unprepared or unlucky, you may die during the exam. If we still wished to continue with the exam, we could follow him. So we all did. Except for that guy trapped in the wall of course.

"I guess I should've have expected it, but I would hope a few people would've backed out by now" Leorio said more to himself.

"But hey, at least were walking. That seems simple enough" I said. So the guy we were following introduced himself as Satotz. He was the first examiner and that he would also be leading us to the second phase of the exam. He said that keeping up with him was part of the first phase. It didn't seem right somehow… he was speeding up? "Ugh… please don't tell me we're gonna have to run. I hate running" But to my dismay, I had to start running to keep up with the guys.

Around thirty minutes later the guys started talking again. They realized that this is a test in a way to keep up, but Kurapika and Tonpa both pointed out that we're just going to have to keep running but we won't know for how much longer. "Ugh… you had to say that outloud?" I complained.

"Sorry Akira" Kurapika apologized. We were running next to each other.

"It's cool, but I feel like I'm forgetting something…"

"What?"

"I don't know, my leg hurts too much because the scooter in my bag keeps hitting me."

"Wait… scooter?" Leorio asked.

"Yeah. I brought it along just incase I couldn't walk anymore. You know it's one of those one's that kids have, the metal ones that fold and the handle can be adjusted."

"Yeah I know what you're talking about…"

"Okay you know what? If I have to talk and run at the same time, I'm screwed." I opened up my messenger bag and pulled out the scooter.

"How the hell did you fit that in there?" Leorio asked amused.

"Very carefully. Woman know how to pack things, dude."

"Yeah… and pack more than they need to also"

"Don't be a sexist ass or I'll hit you with the handle bars."

"But you set me up for that one!"

"Whatever" I first fixed the scooter handles, and made them lift to as high as they could. I then moved the latch that kept the scooter folded and it fell. I flipped it around myself, let the wheels roll and jumped onto it. I got my balanced then started using my right leg to keep pushing every time I needed a boost. Gon was busy getting a lesson from Tonpa on the regulars of the exam. While I was listening in, I made a mental note on each competitor.

As I was looking around, I saw a guy with red hair and the ends of his hair was the red fading into orange and then into yellow; it gave the illusion that his hair was fire. He was looking at me at the same time I noticed him and saw the hint of… green-gray eyes…? They looked a lot like mine. I could be mistaken, but the instance that he noticed me looking at him, his eyes turned yellow then he looked away and kept on running. I made another mental note about him as well. I had to talk and learn about him later.

The white haired kid was doing the same thing I did; he came up from behind me, except he was on a skateboard.

"Wow that's cool" Gon admired the other boy.

"Hey that's cheating! You! Kid on the skate board, that's not fair." Leorio yelled at him.

"Hey! What's your name? How old are you?" Gon asked him.

"So what makes you think I'm cheating?" The mysterious boy asked ignoring Gon.

"It's an endurance test!"

"Not really" Gon cut in "He just said we had to follow him. He didn't say how"

"Who's your friend Gon? Me or him?" Leorio asked in annoyance.

I heard the white haired boy mumble something about Gon and Leorio being friends?

"Stop yelling! You're only wasting energy." Kurapika cut off everyone "And it's annoying. We're allowed to bring what we want to the exam"

"So you're new here?" Tonpa asked. "Well if you have any questions I'm the-" Tonpa got cut off by some kind of glare the boy was giving him.

The boy turned around and just kept on skating.

"Wicked glare bro…" I said to myself complimenting him, I doubt he could hear me though.

Gon started talking to the quiet kid. I have to admit, it was adorable. The kid jumped off his skate board and started running. He called Leorio mister and asked him how old he was. Then he got mad because we all thought he was old. And he said was never talking to Gon or I ever again.

"Unbelievable" Kurapika said.

"That's all it took?!" I yelled. "Really?"

Leorio gave me a glare and kept running on. I looked around to see the fire haired guy still ahead of us, but he looked at me again and turned away. _Two things Im asking myself… why is he staring at me, and why do I keep staring at him. Sure he's cute, but… I feel something weird when I look at him… _I thought _Maybe I should talk to Kurapika about this? Hmm… maybe later, I don't want to waste his energy on me._

A few minutes later, we were still running and we were running towards another tunnel. We continued on taking the left tunnel.

Leorio on the other hand suggested that maybe if we went and took the right tunnel, it might be a short cut.

"Hey Leorio… I'd love to take the chance of going right on any other occasion and resist the authority we're following, but since this exam is pretty important, I don't wanna fail just because it's a fifty fifty chance of it being a short cut or a bull shit path." After my sentence and a dumb look from Leorio I started smelling the air, because a sweet smell captured my attention. "Am I the only one smelling that?" I asked.

"No, I smell it too" Gon said. "It smells sweet right?"

"Hell yeah." I agreed. "It's also making me really hungry. It makes me seriously want some pancakes right now" I then thought about a whole stack of delicious pancakes and continued day dreaming about them.

_**~Three hours later~**_

_Ugh… this tunnel is taking forever. Hmm… I wonder what the world above us look like right now? I mean… we were in the city three hours ago, I can only imagine where we are now. Sucks to not have x-ray vision. _I kept thinking about random things. Then the sweet smell from another tunnel came back.

"Whoa, Im wanting waffles now."

"I'm pretty sure you're smelling sap" Tonpa said.

"I knew it was familiar… See now I just thought it was the undiscovered B.O. of mermaids or something" I said sarcastically. "Bro… I knew it was sap, why do you think I thought about breakfast food?"

"Anyway, we've been running for about three hours now." Kurapika pointed out.

"Yeah… only three hours of scootering could make my legs starting to hurt a little bit" I looked to notice that Leorio wasn't with us like he was before. I turned my head around to see if he was behind us, turns out he was. "Hey Leorio! Are you alright?" I called asked. He was sweating profusely and he looked like he was starting to run out of breath. He dropped his brief case and hunched over panting to get any amount of air into his lungs. "Leorio!" Gon and I called out worrying. The other guys stopped and the rest of the applicants kept running. I paused my scooter and folded it. I started stretching out my leg muscles a little to get rid of any cramps.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" The white haired kid asked "He's finished so just leave him behind." He said referring to Leorio.

"You don't know that! And we cant just leave him behind!" Gon said.

"Yeah. He's our friend and we aren't gonna abandon him" I protested.

"Your friend?"

"Yep" I smiled.

"That's what I said" Gon said seriously.

"I'm not giving up!" Leorio breathed out "I came here to become a hunter and that's what Im going to do!" He sounded like he was telling himself more than us so he ran another few feet just to be caught up to us. Then another few inches and he stopped to pant once more.

"Hey take it easy." Tonpa said "You need a break"

"Shut up!" Leorio yelled "If you're not gonna try, Im going to leave you in my dust" He breathed each word out. "Aww great, now my legs wont move" He kept on panting heavily.

"So you're not just after money" Kurapika said.

"No it's all about the money" Leorio denied.

"We do not have time to argue about this!" Gon cut in "What do you think we should do, Tonpa?" He asked.

Tonpa thought for a minute. "Hey wait a minute. That smell!" He said.

"What?" I asked.

"Remember that sweet smelling sap?" He pointed out to the other guys. "It was coming from the other tunnel, I thought I recognized that smell, it's from the Healing cedar tree."

"Whoa… healing cedar tree?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's used by hunters who get tired in the forrest. All you need to do smell the sap for a whole and you'll feel better."

"Wait a minute, it could be a trap" Kurapika brought up.

"Yeah maybe. That is possible, but we can't just leave him behind. It's just a chance that we're going to have to take."

"Yeah but…"

"I'm king of the flunkies… and you know why I failed thirty four times? It's because I'm a sucker for anyone who needs my help" He grinned.

He took off with Leorio and made his way down the tunnel.

"Awww" I chimed out. That got me thinking… _As long as he helps people, I guess it's okay and he seems really helpful, but… healing cedar? Hmm… _

"Are you guys coming?" Skate board boy asked.

"Huh? Sorry to waste any of your time. But I'm not really gonna go anywhere without Leorio. You can go ahead if you want." Gon answered. They stared at each other for a moment then Gon told Kurapika and I that he was going to go back and check on Leorio, we both agreed to go with him. "Haha, we'll be back" He looked at the other kid "Maybe then if you want, you can tell me your name, 'cause I still don't know what it is"

"Okay?" I asked "I want to know what it is too. See ya' Later" I said as we started running off.

"Hey Kurapika…"

"Yes, Akira?"

"Remember back when we were younger and there was that healing garden in the forest that my tribe took care of?"

"Yes…"

"Well…"

"What are you talking about?" The Gon asked questioningly.

"Well long story short kid, The "healing" cedar thing doesn't sit right with me"

"Why not?"

"Well back when my Tribe had a break out of the common flu, we grew a bunch of different herbs and stuff that having healing abilities that would keep the ill good until we could go and buy actual medicine. We grew every kind of healing plant and herb you could think of and I was part of the group the would take care of the plants, so I had to learn everything about each plant. So… when I think about it, I don't ever remember growing or even hearing about a 'healing' cedar tree."

"So what does this mean?" Gon asked concerned.

"Well besides that my short explanation is not so short anymore-"

"It means that maybe Leorio is in some kind of danger" Kurapika finished.

After that, we heard a scream coming from the direction we were headed. Our faces were covered in worry as we kept running. "So you guys heard that right? We may got us a serious bitch nugget problem on our hands." I stated _Let's hope we make to Leorio in time before something bad happens…_


	6. Chapter 6

**Authors Note: HEY. I was planning to update this like a week ago, but something happened so I lost half my story D: So I had to re-write it all ;~; AND ALSO, THE SONG USED IN THIS CHAPTER DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. Bonus points to you if you know where it's from~ :3**

**Japanese song used in this chapter~**

HOPE YOU'RE LIKING THE STORY :3!

* * *

><p>Kurapika, Gon and I kept running back towards the sweet smelling tunnel.<p>

As we got to the fork between the tunnels, we saw Tonpa lying on the ground.

Gon went to his rescue and he had a face of fear on him.

"Oh it's you." Tonpa noticed. "Hurry, they need your help" He pointed towards the other tunnel.

"What happened back there?" Kurapika asked worried.

"It was a trap. Worst I've seen, Hurry." Tonpa spat out those words like he was so frightened.

We all took a look at each other before running down the tunnel which was apparently a trap in an effort to save our friend.

"Hey Akira" Gon called me

"Uh yeah?"

"Is there a healing cedar or not?"

"I don't know! I'm racking my brain here to see if I missed one, just give me a minute to think" I replied as we kept running deeper into the eerie tunnel whose sap smell just kept making me hungry. _Honestly, I can't remember a single thing, but Tonpa looked so sure. Then again… he did say it was a trap… but he did try to help out, so I feel like there could be one. _"Ugh, I'm feeling so stupid right now" I sighed out.

"No need to feel stupid, Akira." Kurapika noted "Just try to remember as fast as you can."

"Gotcha"

After another minute of running further down, we saw a roundish kind of body lying on the ground, where a ruffled shirt and suspenders.

"Nicholas!" Kurapika and I called out to him as we stopped right by his laying body.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Gon asked.

"You aren't dead are you?" I asked a little worried.

Just then he turned over and got up slowly. "Well you're not dead… unless you're like a zombie." I said as I stood behind Kurapika watching Nicholas slowly walking away. As he kept walking all he did was chuckle. It was one of those crazy sounding chuckles you hear in movies from the crazy bad guy. But his sounded like it was filled with hopelessness and despair and self pity. He just looked back at us and kept walking. "I think he's just gone crazy…" _Wait… sap and being crazy, why does that sound familiar to me…_

"We've got to find Leorio!" Kurapika stated.

Gon and I nodded and we started running down the creepy hunger inducing tunnel.

"Man, I'm getting a weird creepy chill going down my spine…" I stated. And about a minute and a half later while we were running, Kurapika just suddenly stopped behind us. "Kurapika… are you alright?"

I walked closer to him and stared at his face because it looked like he was getting scared.

As I looked into his eyes, I saw that the shine from them had vanished and his pupil had gotten smaller. "Oh my god, Kurapika…" Next all that happened as I tried to approach one more step and then Kurapika held his weapons out at me, looking like he was trying to protect himself.

"Kurapika?" Gon started worrying; you could hear it in his voice.

"The Phantom Troupe…" He breathed out as he blinked and his eyes turned scarlet red.

"Kurapika what are you talking about? They're not here" I said trying to talk to him

"No… please… don't do it" He kept breathing as he fell to the ground.

"Kurapika! What's going on? Can you hear me?" Gon ask as he stood by him.

I fell to the ground on my knees in front of Kurapika. I tried to hold him by the shoulder as he was staring into the ground. "Kurapika! Kurapika! Come on, answer me!" I said as I shook him. My eyes turned into an orange color, indicating a huge feeling of worry.

"Kurapika!" Gon kept calling him hoping for an answer as well.

But to no avail. Kurapika layed on the ground a little more "Make them stop… please…" He said above a whisper.

"Akira… your eyes, they're orange…" Gon said.

"Yeah… my eyes tend to change color depending on the mood I'm in. It was the trait of my clan. Just how Kurapika's eyes turn scarlet, when he feels anger or infuriation or rage or any other high amount of emotion, mine turn into different colors depending on my mood"

"That's pretty cool" Gon smiled slightly.

"Thanks" I looked into Kurapika's eyes "Oh my god, Gon, I think he's hallucinating" I said as I held my hand on Kurapika's head.

"So… what do we do?"

"Right now, I don't know." I said anxiously. "Ugh, I'm so stupid! I can't believe I let Kurapika get like this" I said through grit teeth. "I'm a horrible friend…" I said as I stroked his hair slightly beneath my fingers. My eyes turned into a deep blue color, showing much sadness or despair.

"Akira, you didn't do anything wrong. This isn't your fault." Gon said trying to comfort me.

"Sure feels like it… I mean, a good friend would know what to do right now, wouldn't they?"

"Well then, try to think of a way to snap him out of it!" Gon determinedly said. His voice sounded really optimistic in a way.

I looked into his brown eyes and saw a certain determined glow. It was really nice actually and I don't know how but it did help me a bit.

"Alright… I'll… try…" Each breath I took made me suddenly a little woozy. "Ugh… Gon" I breathed out.

"Yes?"

"Come on, we have to take, Kurapika… with us… and keep going" I said as I held my head in my hands.

"Are you okay?" He asked worried.

"Yeah… just getting light headed a little" I said slowly getting up myself trying to maintain my balance. "Come on, help me get it up on my shoulder" I said to Gon as tried to lift Kurapika up from the ground.

"No way, Akira, I'll carry him, you don't look like you can right now." Gon said as he lifted Kurapika onto himself over the shoulder. "Now let's go."

"Alright…" I said standing straight and walking next to Gon as he carried my best friend. "Thank you very much…"

"No problem"

A few steps later, I hear a voice in my head saying "_You're not worthy of living…", "You will achieve your dreams", "You suck, go die"._

_"_Who are you?" I asked out in the open. They sounded like the kids who use to pick on me when I was younger.

"Akira, who are you talking to?" Gon asked.

_"You know why your brother left? It's because you were such a horrible sister."_

"Mom?" I heard the voice of my foster mom.

_"He left us. Because of you" I saw her drink out of a bottle of vodka. I saw my old foster home. I was sitting in the living room watching TV while sitting under the table. I was drinking some apple juice, watching a kid show, my favorite one from when I was nine. But… I was my sixteen year old self here…_

_"He didn't leave because of me…" I said._

_ "Bull shit" She broke the vodka bottle against the closest wall near the couch she was sitting on. She pointed the broken end at me. "It was your entire fault for hurting him. You made him lose his girlfriend. You made him lose all the sport games he took place in. You burnt him when he tried to cook for you."_

_"You were always drunk and hit him when he said something right" I said. I then felt a sharp glass end cut my cheek "Ow!"_

_"Shut your mouth you whining brat, speak to your parents with respect" She spat "Maybe that's why your original family dumped you at the orphanage"_

_I started having a tear coming out mixing with the blood from the cut and the salty tear drop making the cut sting._

"Akira! Your eyes, they're turning white" I could hear Gon say in a fading distance.

"White? Fear…" I whispered as I felt myself fall on my knees again.

_I looked up to see myself in my room… the way it looked when I was ten, but I was still in my sixteen year old body. My foster father came into the room and I could smell the whisky. He had a look in his eye… a creepy one. He pulled out a whip from behind his back and smacked it against the floor. I crawled backwards away from it."Do you realize that with your failing grades, you need to get punished?"_

_"What are you doing, this isn't right!" I yelled._

_"Quiet!" He whipped at my leg and it hurt a lot. "I'll decide what's right! You're the one failing here" He chuckled eerily._

_He came closer to me raising the whip, but I did the same thing I did when I was ten that day, I kicked him in the groin and ran out of the house as fast as I could in my pj's. I ran as fast as my legs could take me as I heard the things crashing in my house fading into the distance as I ran towards the healing garden in the forest._

_Although as soon as I tripped, I fell front first and when I opened my eyes after the fall… I saw _his _face. "Kadan?"_

_"Hi Akira" He smiled at me._

_It was him… Kadan, my first love. He gave me an ice cream while we were at the park._

_This doesn't seem so bad, _I thought. _Wait… I remember this day…_

_Next there was a blood curdling scream coming from the town center. We ran as fast as we could to see a number of my people being decapitated. The sounds of clashing swords from our people as we tried to fight back, but to no avail. Each sound of each person's life being taken in an instance. I saw both my parents fighting a huge guy with fur clothing and gray hair. His muscles made him look like a giant. He punched both my parent and used his bare hands to rip their heads off. "This is not happening" I said as I grabbed Kadan's hand. "Kadan what do we do?"_

_"We're in the middle of cross fire, we have to-" Just then a man grabbed him from behind and covered his mouth. I saw he was tall, he broke our hold. He had brown jelled back hair._

_The attack… from when I was going to turn thirteen that year. "Watch it kids" He said._

_Kadan bit the hand covering his mouth and as soon as he was dropped he yelled out "Akira, go! Run! Hide!"_

_I was so afraid but I didn't do anything but listen and I ran. I just ran into a small building that looked already broken down._

_I climbed up to the second floor and looked out the window down below. I saw another female with a sword and straight blonde hair in front of Kadan with her sword out. She was dressed kind of like a normal human being. She had a plaid open button shirt with a black tube top, plaid shorts and a pair of black knee high combat boots. She wore black sunglasses that hid her eyes and she had a spider tattoo on her neck._

_The brown haired man from behind held Kadan down and the woman with the sword… slash, right through his neck and his head fell._

"No, Kadan!" I yelled.

"Who is Kadan?" Gon was yelling at me, but right at the moment I couldn't hear anything more than screams and crying and my own heart racing so fast and beating so hard, I thought I was going to die.

_I just waited in that building; closed my eyes and hugged my legs._

_When I opened them again, I saw I was sitting on the ground next to a shovel. I saw tombstones. That day was the day after the attack. I… I buried every single body in the graveyard that very next day. All the eyes out of the decapitated heads._

_I put each head and body part in their own holes… and after each body and other limbs were buried, I gave all my hope that they would rest in peace._

_Although, the only bodies I buried without any despair and terrible feeling, were my parents and their eyeless heads. Not that the look wasn't horrific and it's not like I wished for it to happen to them, but… I just hated them from all the pain and sufferings they made me go through. I thought the bullies were the kids, but no, them to. Not only did they hurt me like a bully, they killed my dreams the only way a parent could._

_I saw the last body I had to bury was Kadans. It was the next night by the time I had to do it and Kurapika came from his village to help me grieve as much as I could and he even brought flowers for me to put on his grave._

_All I could do was cry to my heart's content. And all Kurapika could do was hold me. He knew the pain of losing an entire clan; he lost his two months before… I had to help him with his burying of the tribe as well._

**Wack. **I got kicked right in the face and that woke me up from the flash back. I opened my eyes again looking at the ground. I got up on my hand and knees and looked up. I saw the skateboarding kid. Then the sharp pain of the kick just caught up with my senses. "Ow! You shit that really fucking hurt!" I yelled at him holding my face.

"It woke you out of your hallucination didn't it?" He asked.

"Well… yeah" I agreed. "Wait, I snapped out of it?! YEAH! Wahoo! Thank you so much, thank you!" I said as I ran up and hugged him. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you"

"Okay… okay you're welcome. You're hugging me… and your boobs are squishing half of my face here." He said pushing me back.

"Sorry, but I'm just so happy now." I said smiling wide.

"Okay" He nodded "But now let's get this guy awake" He said turning towards Kurapika. He raised his leg readying himself to kick Kurapika in the face.

"Wait!" I stopped him.

"What? Don't you want your boyfriend awake?"

"What?" I asked confused "He's _not_ my boyfriend." I emphasized. "But I just don't like him getting hurt; can I try to wake him up first?"

"How?"

"You know how when you hold someones nose when they sleep, that it stops the breathing for a sec and wakes the person up?"

"Yeah…"

"And my magical lung power screaming into his ear might help as well…"

"Alright, have it your way" He boredly said.

"Okay guys, cover your ears and close your eyes." I instructed.

"Why?" Gon asked.

"Just do it"

They did what I asked. Kurapika was lying facing me and I was leaning over him. Not a second later while Kurapika and I were still on the ground, I turned his head, held his nose and let out a soul ripping scream of his name into his ear. I moved his face back to me and he woke up in a shock. I let go of his nose so fast, but… in the process, in the most clichéd way he jolted up so fast that our lips ended up meeting each other. Awkward, right? Well we were both wide eyed staring at each other. The kiss stayed in contact for a few seconds before we finally pulled away. I'm just so glad that the boys didn't see it.

"Uh…" we said processing the entire thing that just happened. "Did we just do that?"

"I think we just did" I said.

"Well let's talk about this later" I said "Gon might want to know you're okay"

I got up and tapped the kids on their shoulders indicating that it was okay to let their ears go and open their eyes.

Gon looked at Kurapika and he started getting all happy and asking about how he was after he woke up.

"By the way, there is no healing cedar tree" Skateboard boy said.

"I knew it!" I yelled. They looked at me for a second. "What? I like being right"

"Anyway, the sap comes from the tree of hallucination. It's been used by assassins for a long time. It makes its victims re-experience the worst events of their lives… eventually drives them insane."

"How do you know that?" Gon asked but got ignored.

"So that means Tonpa must've" Kurapika started.

"Yeah… he set you guys up"

Kurapika and I slightly growled at the news.

"We should go!" Gon insisted.

"Yeah, I think I know a way to catch up to that guy you were with and catch up to the group in a single move" The mystery boy smirked.

"How do you propose we do that?

"A game is no fun unless you take some risks."

"I'm glad we met up again, are you gonna tell me your name now?" Gon asked.

"Killua" He slightly smiled at us.

"Well Killua, I think your name is pretty awesome." I complimented him.

"Thanks"

"So Killua, tell us your idea" Gon said.

Killua reached into his pocket and pulled something out. He told us it was a bomb. It may have been small, but it was effective apparently.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's blow these motherfucking walls up!" I shouted.

"I think you're the first girl I met that has ever liked seeing stuff blow up" Killua said.

So after that he clicked the button and started blasting through walls with each explosion. One after another, it was explosions explosions explosions. God damn it was fun to see. We kept jumping through the holes created and I'm just glad the entire time the entire tunnel wasn't crumbling down around us. After one more wall, we exploded into the same area Leorio was in.

"It worked." Kurapika stated "Not the easiest way to travel but it is fast." He looked at the wall we just came through "Looks like there's no turning back now"

Leorio got up and started holding his head, clearly in pain. He looked ahead of him and saw us. Gon was upside down, adorable. Kurapika was kneeling, and I somehow was crouched like I was a frog.

"Gon, Kurapika, Akira?" He asked himself as if he was trying to see if it was really us. He said another name; I think it was 'Pietro'.

"You were hallucinating as a result from inhaling the sap." Kurapika told him "Tonpa fooled us all"

"I'm glad you're okay, dude. But I was kind of hoping to kick you in the face to wake you up." I whispered the last part.

"Thanks… wait, hallucinating? So that's what it was. Looks like I owe you guys one for saving my butt" He said.

"No problem, just give me five buck and a hug, and consider me repaid" I said smugly.

"I'm not going to give you five dollars!"

"Well how about a big hug?" I joked in a little kid voice.

"Well… alright"

I walked up to Leorio and we hugged. "But wait…" He said after the hug was done "How did you guys manage to avoid it?" I walked back next to Kurapika during his question.

"It was a close one for me" He answered. I hugged him.

"Believe me, I wasn't fine at all either" I said.

"I was fine! I didn't feel a thing!" Gon cheered.

"You lucky turd~" I joked while smiling at him.

"It didn't work on you because you're still a kid, you don't have any problems yet" Leorio stated.

So Killua got Leorio's attention by calling him an old man, He got introduced by Gon to Leorio and Killua started up some more bombs and blew through more walls.

We blasted through about three walls, when we finally spotted the group. Killua jumped through first, and then Gon, Kurapika, Me and then Leorio was somehow falling upside down. It was pretty funny.

"What exactly is going on here?" Satotz asked.

"Uh… I'm sorry, but we had to break through the wall" Gon apologized.

"I never said you couldn't destroy the walls. But tell me, how is it that you survived going down the 'Tunnel of Hallucination'?" He asked "I'm quite impressed."

"Believe me, it was _not_ easy" I emphasized stretching out my back.

"I don't believe it, where'd they get the rookies from this year?" I heard Tonpa say.

Leorio obviously heard him too. "How dare you! I've got a score to settle with you." He held him up by his shirt.

"Stop it Leorio!" Gon protested.

"I've got to something to settle with you to, chubby" I said walking closer to them. "Okay, you trick me and my friends and made me relive some of the worst shit in my life?" I said getting angrier by each word. "I couldn't care less if you make me go through pain, but once you fuck with my friends, especially Kurapika, well I'm not the kind of person to let you off with a warning!"

"Akira! Calm down" Kurapika told me.

"You so deserve this Tonpa!" I said, lifting my leg and then letting one hard kick to his groin. Kurapika pulled me back, obviously not in time for him to stop me.

A chorus of 'ohh' and 'ouch's' and people breathing in through their teeth echoed at the sight of the big guy going down in pain.

"Akira, this isn't the time or place" Kurapika scolded me. I really hated when he would do that.

"But Kurapika, you know I don't like anyone hurting you…" I said sadly.

"I know, but you didn't have to do that now"

"Yeah… I'm sorry…" I looked up at his face with the big puppy dog eyes I always give him when I want him to forgive me.

"It's alright" He forgave me.

So the group gave Tonpa another minute to re-cooperate from the pain as much as he could and we started running again.

We started getting into the final stretch. Leorio was in the back and Kurapika and I were keeping him company.

"So Akira" Kurapika spoke to me. I ran closer to him to get a better listen.

"Yeah Kurapika?"

"About earlier when we-"

"You mean the thing, the kiss thing?"

"Yeah… I just wanted to apologize for it"

"You don't have to apologize, Kurapika, it was an accident and since it was you, I don't mind"

"Well okay. But I wanted to apologize because I know it was your first-"

"LALALA Can't hear you! LALALA, No one can hear that!" I said obnoxiously trying to make sure no one could hear.

"What are you guys talking about?" Leorio asked.

"Nothing! We're talking about nothing!" I said. "I was just about to listen to some music" I said pulling out one of my headphones and started listening to a song called "Be Strong". It was playing in my right ear as Kurapika and Leorio were talking.

_"Nani kashira kojitsukete wa iyana koto saketeikiteta  
>Naiyou nante nai yo ne<br>Ano toki moshimo guuzen deatte nakereba koko de  
>Ikiru imi sae shirazu ni<em>

_Dono michi no tatsujin mo ichinichi ja naritattenai  
>Sono risouzou mune ni daki<br>Muda kuchi kikazu wakime mo furazu..._

_Demo nakidashisou de nagedashitakunatte  
>Yowai jibun ni makesou naraba<br>Sonna jibun torikago ni haire  
>Tani he tsukiotose!<em>"

"I see, so you were lying to us before?" Kurapika asked.

"No my objective has always been to make a lot of money" Leorio retorted. "And whatever happened in the past, is in the past"

"Those are good words to live by, bro" I complimented.

"Right. And I have no interest in doing things that won't make me any money." He continued.

"Well I wish you luck" Kurapika and I wished him in unison.

"Thanks, but I don't need luck. I'm going to become a hunter or die trying"

"No, a doctor" Kurapika said. We both looked at Leorio with a sincere look.

"Could you guys not look at me like that? It makes me a little nervous" He said looking away.

"What does it turn you on or something?" I joked.

"No!" He yelled as he started running ahead.

"So are you alright now, Leorio?" Kurapika asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Check it out, I don't care how stupid I look, I'd keep running even if I was naked! Pretend you don't know me if you want!"

"No problem, Leorio! I already do that!" I joked smiling.

Kurapika took off his Poncho shirt thing, he never did tell me the correct name for it, but I could tell that he was following Leorio's example. So, I followed Kurapika and took off my shirt. I had a Tank top underneath so it was all good.

We kept running and I kept listening to my music while talking with the guys.

Soon enough we finally made it out of the exit and finally brought to the outside world. I looked around and saw the most fantastic view of a swamp underneath us.

"These are the Milsie Wetlands, known to many as 'Swindlers Swamp'. We'll have to get through there to make it to the second phase." Satotz explained. There was a bunch of birds cawing out "There are many creatures unique to these wetlands. They are crafty and veracious. They'll try to deceive you and make you their next meal."

I looked around to see who made it out okay. I saw that the guy with the fire hair was panting a little bit at the far end of the group. Then after that the gate behind us started closing, I saw a random guy who was trying to crawl to get out, he looked so exhausted, so I tried to go to help pull him out, but Kurapika grabbed my shoulder and stopped me from going to try to help the poor guy. So the gate closed in his face. I felt bad for all those people getting stuck, but I have to do what Kurapika said. It's the Hunter Exam; I guess I need to try harder for myself…

"Follow me and stay close, if you are deceived, you are as good as dead" The examiner said.

"But wait, that doesn't make any sense. How can they deceive us if we know that's what they're already trying to do?" Leorio asked.

"You shouldn't have said that!" I retorted.

"Why?"

"Three, two, one" I counted down on my fingers.

"He's lying! Don't listen to him!" Everyone turned to see a messed up guy who was holding a bag with a dead creature in it. "He's an imposter! The real examiner is me!"

The crowd of people around us started talking and thinking. It's like in a minute the tension around us started getting tenser with confusion.

"That's why I said not to say that." I told him "In movies, as soon as someone says something smartass wise, something happens…"

_Looks like things will get a little rough around here…_


	7. Chapter 7

**Authors Note: STORY TIME~ STORY TIME. OH I BET YOU LOVE STORY TIME~ :3**

**Okay, So anyway, this chapter, eh. Not much to be said xD**  
><strong>But I'm glad at all the views and I'm glad people are reading :3<strong>

**I apologize for any grammar or spelling mistakes that spelling check couldn't find D:**

**I hope you people are liking it anyway! NOW READ ON~ :3!**

* * *

><p>So many of the guys that were trying to judge of which who is who and which statement is true, were starting to get very angsty.<p>

Leorio asked the 'so-called' hunter whether or not he could prove if it was true. The man calling fraud threw a bag with a dead magical beast's body onto the ground, So many people were buying the whole "he's fake" thing just because the dead beast before them seemed to look like him.

_In my opinion... I don't think the beast looks anything like our examiner... maybe it's the fact that he has a mouth... and no moustache. _I thought _Plus the hair is brown... so..._

Leorio was starting to buy the other persons story because it seemed like the examiner stamina was not human.

I looked at Kurapika's face and it was full of "No, I shouldn't get involved" vibes.

"So what do you think?" Gon asked out loud "Is this part of the hunter exam?"

I patted Gon on the head and whispered "Good boy, Gon, you're making people stop and think" I smiled.

"Hey Gon" Leorio hunched down to Gon's ear and asked "You can tell me what he is, cant you? Why don't you smell him or something?"

"Leorio..." I rolled my eyes.

"I can't tell, there's nothing" Gon replied.

"What do you mean there's nothing?" Leorio asked.

"There's no scent. If he is disguised as a human, he sure is doing a good job."

Leorio sighed and got back up. "Great... just great" he breathed out sarcastically.

"There is another way we can tell." Kurapika shot up an idea "If he's an examiner, he'll have a hunter license card he can show us"

"Good idea" I smiled at him.

"A hunter license card?" Gon asked.

"Only hunters are qualified enough to judge the exam. That's how we'll know."

"So are you saying that this guy is actually a hunter?" He looked at Satotz "That's awesome!"

"It won't prove anything, he stole my card! He jumped me and took everything I had!"

"So you say..." Kurapika whispered.

_Bingo!_

"Well what now?" Leorio asked "Even having the card doesn't prove anything"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! This is where I don't buy your bullshit, good sir" I yelled out loud and pointed at the man claiming fraud. He stared at me with a confused look.

"What are you talking about?! I'm not lying!"

"Okay, I'm sorry people but" I started "Are you that stupid that you can't pick up on clues and common knowledge?" I took a breath in "Okay, number one, if he was a hunter, how could he get his license stolen? By a beast?!" People were looking at me and I could tell that the cogs in their heads where starting to move. "Two, since when does a hunter even allow himself to get caught by_ one_ beast. Don't you think he could've just killed the beast before anything severe could happen to him? I mean, look at those cuts and bruises. Besides, I don't even think that monkey man thing even looks like Satotz!"

"What are you talking about?!" The man I knew was fake shouted "Look at the evidence! I'm hurt and that magical beast looks exactly like him! You never know, there are some animals that could've taken my card if they were clever enough!" He grit his teeth "Besides, you shouldn't be talking, it's obvious to me that you have no idea what you're talking about!"

People faces started to become less confused, but I could tell they all weren't with me; the fake was still getting people to believe him.

Most of these men were on the actual imposter's side, just because he called me a stupid girl? How fucking sexist. I looked at all the men around me, all they had were glares. I saw the fire haired guy looking at me. He mouthed out the words "I believe you". Well there goes one good guy here.

Just then cards went flying at both of "the examiners", unfortunately, the one to claim he was real, got some cards to the face and died. While Satotz had caught them with his hands. Hisoka was playing with his cards, just flying the deck from one hand to the other. Everyone stared at him in fear. "I see, I see"

"What'd you do that for?" Leorio asked in a frenzy.

"Much faster than arguing about it, don't you think?"

Right then the beast that appeared to be dead, just showed that he only was appearing to be when he got up and try to run away from the group. This just caused a card to be sent flying to his back and resulted in a killing.

"Thank you, Hisoka!" I said "You just proved my point!"

"Yes, I know. I guess that settles it; you are the real thing" Hisoka looked at the true examiner "Anyone worthy of being a hunter would be able to dodge a simple attack like that one" He explained.

_Man I love Hisoka so much right now for helping me make people a little less stupid. _I thought with a mental smile.

"Yes well I'll take that as a compliment. However, from now on, any attack directed at an examiner will be counted as insubordination and will be grounded for immediate disqualification. Do I make myself clear?"

"Of course" Hisoka agreed.

"That was pretty crazy" Killua pointed out.

"A man faced ape like that, would never be clever enough to fool a true hunter. As soon as he said that he took Satotz card, I knew he wasn't the real thing."

"And I was the smart ass to point it out to everyone" I laughed at myself. "But you bitch, didn't believe me!" I yelled happily pointing at Leorio.

"Who are you calling a bitch?" He asked

"My friend" I smiled. "Friendships are all about insults" I joked.

"But still" Kurapika continued from before "I can't believe Hisoka had the nerve to attack an examiner like that" He said to our group.

"He is one evil bad ass" I shook my head.

"Remember not to go near him again, Akira. You promised" Kurapika told me.

"Ugh... fine" I agreed. I looked back at the animal that was lying face down on the ground and dead. "Poor thing..." I stood next to Gon with a sad look on my face.

"Hey are you guy okay or what?" Killua asked.

Sure I may have said that 'he could've just killed the beast' before, but I could never bring myself to actually kill a magical beast or any animal for that matter. I loved the creatures of the world. Except certain insects... those things creeped me out so much, just like every other "normal" girl, but I did love all the birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and everything mixed in between.

"There's no need to feel bad" Satotz started "For these creatures, it's a way of life. They take risks, and then face the consequences. That's just the way it is. Survival of the fittest"

Vultures started flying down towards the body, started picking at the corpse.

"It's like a weird version of karma... I guess." I sighed.

"Well enough of that! Isn't it about time we start getting to the second phase?" Satotz said.

The group started running once again through the muddy swamp. The mud was making the ground hard to run on. As usual I took my place by Kurapika, we could've been up to Gon and Killua who were ahead of us and more towards the front. Kurapika just didn't want to leave Leorio behind, so I'm not leaving him.

"Oh look, fog" I plainly started looking at the fog. I never understood why but whether involving water, I just loved. "Ugh... Kurapika, I'm conflicted. Should I put my shirt back on or not? The chill from the air is going to give me goosebumps." I started.

"I thought you liked the feel of goosebumps." Kurapika retorted.

"I do, but I miss my shirt, but I like being out in a tank-top" I sighed.

"I really don't want you walking around in clothing that isn't going to help cover much"

"It's just cleavage." I laughed. "You always have to be so conservative"

"However, you're your own person who can make her own decisions. So make this small one"

"But you know I get really indecisive!" I shot back. I started thinking about my shirt that I stuck in my bag. _Should I, or should I not? Hmm... "_Do do dodo dododo de da dodo da de da do" I started making my own little tune. I would usually sing tunes to help me focus, or if I'm really out of focus to keep me distracted from doing things.

My little scatting got caught off when I heard Gon yell Leorio, Kurapika and my name. "Killua said we should move up to the front of the path!"

"Well duh! Don't you think I'd already be up there if I could?!" He shot back.

"Come on! You can do! You've got to!" Gon answered back optimistically.

"Easy for you to say..."

"Oh how I love how Gon can be so hopeful." I said to myself. "I admire that about him"

The fog started getting thicker. "Holy crap... It's getting harder to see people at the front." I started running a little closer to Kurapika. I don't want to lose him.

There was a screeching sound and Kurapika pointed out that they were moths. Never let a moth touch you. "Oh fuck this shit." I decided quickly _I am not letting these mother fucking bugs touch me. _I pulled out my previous shirt and threw it on as quickly as I could while I kept running. The fog started clearing up a little bit and a few of us examinees were running through a few trees and I saw a bunch of bodies covered in some kind of weird goo. The few guys ahead of us saw some glowing light and figured it was help coming for us. "Wait, hold up! Why would there be help if this is part of the exam, to test our survival!"

"Stay back!" Kurapika called out to them, but it was too late, the few guys a head had run into giant tortoises that began to gobble them up. This is seriously... not a pretty sight.

"Giant ground toad!" I yelled.

"It would appear that the unlucky one's who fell behind don't stand too much of a chance" Kurapika noted

"How can you say that like it's happening to someone else?!" Leorio asked.

"Well we aren't getting eaten ourselves, but you're right Leorio" I agreed. I looked ahead of me and saw some people flying from explosions "Holy crap... Exploding mushrooms..."

Just then I heard a few steps and bam, just like that cards went flying. Kurapika used his covered swords as a deflector for himself and me. _God damn that's really hot _I mentally sighed and slapped myself at my own thought _how could I think about that now?!_

Leorio was screaming out in pain because a card somehow managed to pierce his skin. People being us though, the poor souls weren't so fortunate.

"That was brutal!" Leorio said to a Hisoka who walked up to the remaining few around. "You didn't have to go and do that!"

"I'm just playing examiner..." He started doing that card trick where he fly his cards from one hand to the other. In his eyes... even through all this fog, I could see his eyes were merciless "I was trying to control myself to at least to the second phase, but I found myself getting bored."

"You could've just invented a new card trick or something" I suggested at him.

"Hmm... I actually did..." He looked at me with a creepy smirk. There goes some chills down my spine. "But the examiner really has his work cut out for him, so I thought I would give him a hand" He said while looking at a card in his hand "And seeing how he isn't around anymore, I'll decide if you have what it takes to become a hunter"

"Hey you freak who do you think you are? It's because of this fog we're lost and the examiners not anywhere around. So that means if we fail, you do too!" Some random guy shouted out. Oh the poor poor guy...

"How rude of you to compare yourself to me..." Hisoka stated after he had just slit the throat of a human being with a card. "Oh and one more thing before you depart... nothing is impossible"

After that a bunch of men started ganging up on Hisoka with threats and were about ready to attack him with everything they got. I took a step back and covered my eyes. "They're brave... but oh my god they are total morons. How can they not see how powerful he is?" I looked through my fingers at the scene. Hisoka had just said that he was about to take them all out with just one card. "They are all going to die..."

"Ladies and Gentleman: May I present Hisoka; the greatest magician of the century! In an exclusive performance, please enjoy." Hisoka announced for himself. I could've sworn he winked at me, ugh; there goes another fucking chill...

Swish swish swish, I don't think he even bat an eyelash, all he did was swing his arm and he's killed them all "This is just like one crazy ass horror movie" I said wide eyed at the sight before me. Some of the guys tried to run away, but Hisoka just laughed a crazy laugh and killed them as well. I moved my hands from my face. The only ones left were Kurapika, me, Leorio and number fifty three. Some guy with long hair and a purple hat. I don't think I know his name.

"You all have failed" Hisoka looked at us with the same crazy look in his eye. "Looks like you four are the only ones who managed to survive"

"Damn you..." Leorio grunted.

"Looks like... you're up next" Hisoka said looking at him. He started walking towards us and I held onto Kurapika's arm. I'll be first to admit, I was scared. Really really scared. I thought he was cool before, but now... He's just not as great as I thought he was. _Looks like I really am going to have to keep that promise and I don't mind at all..._

"Listen, when I give the signal we run in different directions." The purple hat guy said.

"I have no objections..." I agreed.

Leorio didn't seem to like the idea by the look on his face "This guy is brutal. Even the coldest blooded killers experience a moment's hesitation before they kill someone, but he doesn't"

"Yeah he's right. We don't stand much of a chance against Hisoka in a fight" Kurapika agreed "Our only choice is to run"

"How can you say that without even giving it a chance?!" Leorio yelled.

"Dude! Did you not just fucking see him kill all those motherfucking people?!" I yelled back.

"You three made it this far, so I can see you really want to be a hunter. So do I. I know this is cowardly, but we have to run" Number fifty three said.

And with that we all dashed off in different directions. I ran behind Kurapika as fast as I needed to keep up with him. Hisoka apparently was giving us a ten second head start before he decided which one to kill first.

A few seconds later I heard Leorio. He sounded like he was about to attack something. _Oh crap... _"Leorio you moron!" I said and stopped. I saw Kurapika ahead of me, but he did stop. "I'm going back for him." I stated as I ran back in the direction I came from. Kurapika came after me.

We got back in time to see Hisoka holding Gon by the throat.

"I'd say you passed" Hisoka said "Oh, did you come back to save your friend to?" Hisoka asked Kurapika and I.

"H-Hell Yeah we did" I said but my voice cracked a bit. "Now put Gon down!"

"I have to say I'm impressed. It might be nice to have such great friends..." He said as he put down my friend.

I looked over and saw Leorio face down on the ground. "Leorio..." I took a step toward him but Kurapika told me to not move. Just then I heard a ringing sound. _He's got a fucking cell phone?! _I thought. Hisoka agreed to something and said he'd be 'there' soon. Who the fuck he was talking to and what about, I don't even fucking know.

He got up and picked up Leorio. Gon and I though, were very on edge about him holding Leorio over his shoulder. "Put him down right now!" We yelled.

"If you really want him back, you'll have to catch me" Hisoka taunted and ran off.

Gon fell to his knee and started breathing fast. Kurapika and ran to him. "Gon, are you alright?" We asked him.

He got back up on his feet and we ran after Hisoka.

Somehow Gon was able to follow Leorio solely based off the smell of his cologne. _I knew I wasn't the only one who smelt how strong it was. _Plus the trail of dead animals was a pretty big clue as well.

"We should still be careful. Hisoka devious, we have no idea what his intentions are. He may have let us go so he could track us down one more time" Kurapika pointed out.

"Yeah but still, that doesn't mean we can leave Leorio, right?" Gon replied. He ran and jumped over that big underground toad and apologized for jumping over its head. Kurapika and I went around it.

"I think I shall name that toad, Tony" I said looking back at its blank face.

"Hey, after the fight back there, Hisoka said Leorio and me passed. What do you think he meant?" Gon asked.

"He said he was playing an examiner. Which means he was probably testing us" Kurapika explained.

"You really think so? But all he ever did was stare at me"

"Yeah, but that was after you struck him in the head, dude" I pointed out "Which by the way, nice job. I don't think I could've done that well." I only bring out my weapon if it's absolutely necessary. I would've got it out to help Leorio, but we didn't make it back until Gon had already hit him.

"Oh that's right. But Leorio didn't have a chance against him, and yet he still told him he passed" Gon said in a questioning tone.

"His speed and strength are super human. He's obviously some kind of a master" Kurapika said referring to Hisoka.

"Master of creepy, maybe" I suggested.

"I know I've never seen anything like it in my life, he's definitely in a league of his own" Kurapika sounded like he was a little nervous over how good Hisoka may be of a fighter.

This entire conversation was just weird. I wonder how Hisoka got to be that good. I mean when you think about it, he must've had some serious problems growing up and training if he's like this now...

"Experienced fighters can often sense things like the skill level, strength, and natural ability of his opponents when they first make physical contact." Kurapika stated "It's possible Hisoka may have seen you and Leorio as worthy opponents because your scent may be just like his own"

"The same scent..." Gon thought out loud.

"Yeah, if it's the same, he might of thought "why kill you now, when you could be of use later"?"

"Kurapika!" I called him as I stopped right next to Gon.

"Oh I'm sorry; I didn't mean to be insensitive." Kurapika stopped ahead of us and apologized to Gon.

"No, it's okay. Killua said the same thing. He said he was like Hisoka because of his scent" Gon told us.

"Gon, you are nothing like Hisoka" I said holding onto his shoulder.

"If it were up to me, someone like him would never be allowed to become a hunter" Kurapika added.

"I wonder..." Gon started.

"What?" I asked.

"When Hisoka was walking towards me all I wanted to do was run, but I couldn't move." Gon confided. "And at that moment I thought 'this is it, this is the end for me'" I hugged him. "I was standing on the edge of life and death." He moved so I let go "But you know, it actually felt kinda exciting" He ran in a different direction.

"Gon!" I called after him "That must've some adrenaline rush he had" I looked at Kurapika who nodded at me in agreement. We followed Gon until we finally got back to the group. Satotz shot a gun in the air and decreed that time was up. "Wahoo! We made it!"

"And just in time" Kurapika added while wiping some sweat from his chin.

"Do you see Leorio or Hisoka anywhere?" Gon asked.

We looked around and saw Hisoka. He pointed towards the right and we looked to find Leorio under a tree.

"Leorio! Are you okay?" I asked as we walked and stood by him.

Kurapika knelt down next to him and inspected his body for anything wrong. "Except for the cut on his arm, he seems alright"

"What about my face?" Leorio asked pointing to the swollen side.

"...It looks normal to me" Kurapika stated.

"Pfffffffft" I covered my mouth as I tried to hold back the fit of giggles I had. _When Kurapika makes a joke, he makes it super funny. Especially when he looks so serious like that. _I thought. I looked around myself one more time to see who had made it. I looked for a specific red head and found him hanging upside down from a tree eating an apple he must've picked.

The way he looked made me feel slightly nostalgic for some reason.

"Normal? What do you mean normal? Oh my god, what happened to me?!" Leorio started freaking out.

"Wait you mean you really don't remember what happened?" Gon asked confused.

"No, so why don't you just tell me already?" He looked at us "Oh wait I remember something. We were running through a swamp and it was muddy and uh..."

"Maybe we shouldn't tell him anything" Kurapika whispered to us "What do you think?"

"Yeah..."

"Agreed" I nodded.

Satotz had congratulated us and lightly praised us as we had finally made it to the second phase.

Gon had been talking to Killua and I was with Kurapika and Leorio.

"Hey Kurapika..."

"Yes Akira?"

"There's been something that's been bugging me for a while now..."

"What is it?"

"Well back when Hisoka was killing all those people... he gave a creepy look when he said he had invented a new card trick..."

"Well you know... there could've been a few different meaning behind that"

I looked at Hisoka who was talking to some creepy guy with a bunch of pins in his face. He turned to look at me with a weird smirk on his face. He snapped his fingers and just then I had a sudden breeze running over my chest. "Whoa... do you feel a breeze?" I asked turning my attention back at Kurapika. The same breeze happened on my back and on my sides. Then out of nowhere, I felt the breeze everywhere on my upper body except for my breasts being held up by my sports bra and my shoulders.

"Holy crap!" Leorio yelled.

"What?" I looked at him. He had a little bit of blood hanging from his nose.

"Akira, your shirt" Kurapika closed his eyes and covered them with one hand.

"What about it-" I questioned and looked down to see that it wasn't there. "_Oh my holy fuck!_" I yelled. Now you think that I would be covering my bra, but no. I covered my stomach as much as I could with my arms. I hated my stomach because I always felt so fat because of it. "What the fuck?!" So many of the guys looked at my direction and started whistling and using cat calls. I ran behind a tree and breathed trying to get my heart to relax from all the embarrassment.

"Akira!" Kurapika, Leorio, Gon and Killua came running after me towards the tree.

"Don't you guys come any closer!" I snapped at them as they stopped by the other side of the tree. "Ugh, I mean, how did Hisoka even do this? Right through my tank top too? Really?!"

"He is a magician after all" Leorio joked.

"That's not funny" I told him.

"Whatever, you know you can't stand behind that tree forever" Killua noted.

"Well I'm not going out there with guys looking at me and making jokes. Or some of them being perverted and try something." I countered. "Besides, that was my favorite shirt!"

"Akira, I don't think your shirt being sliced is the point" Leorio answered.

"Akira, you need to put on a new shirt, did you pack another one?" Kurapika asked.

"I did!" I smiled. I looked into my bag but I couldn't find it. "Oh fuck..." I sighed. "It's not here anymore... I think it may have fallen out of my bag when I put back on my first shirt" I stated. "Great..."

"Akira, I don't think you looked that bad..." Gon tried to comfort me.

"Yeah...? Well thanks Gon, but I'm not walking out from behind this tree. I don't want innocent twelve year olds seeing me"

"I'm not that innocent" Killua argued.

"Don't care!" I said "Oh! Idea!"

"What?" They all asked me.

"Kurapika... do you think I could borrow your poncho thing?" I asked.

"Of course" Kurapika pulled out the poncho from his bag and covered his eyes as he handed it to me.

I grabbed it, took off the collar that got left behind from my shirt and put on the blue and orange life saver. It didn't cover my sides so I had to bend the poncho ending around my front and back folded the end into the bindings. I walked out from behind the tree and sighed. "It's not a miracle, but it did help a lot, despite looking strange." I scratched my face in embarrassment. "Now I really hope that no ass holes are going to make cracks at me" I walked next to Kurapika and hugged him. "Thank you, I'm really glad you're my best friend" I smiled at him.

"You're welcome" He smiled back.

We walked back to the group and I was ignoring everyone who was looking at me. Right after there was a loud rumbling sound. "I'm not the only one who heard that right?" I asked looking around.

"It's almost time" Gon said.

"I'm getting a little nervous" Kurapika added.

"Same here" I said holding my stomach. _I think all the running finally caught up with me. _I thought. _I just hope I don't puke._

"Me too" Leorio agreed with Kurapika "Just about anything could be waiting for us right behind those doors"

That rumbling sound got a little louder and as soon as the clock struck twelve, the doors started to open.

_I can't wait to see what our next challenge is going to be. I will pass!_


End file.
